Love on A Place like Pandora
by saddlecreeperz
Summary: Zer0- a cold assassin seeking the Vault, the ultimate challenge. Maya- a siren seeking the truth to her siren lineage. When both join forces (along with another four misfits), what chaos ensues? Maya/Zero or May0 as people call it. Message: Stalker stop spamming the reviews and change your name. Stalkers are enemies in Borderlands and they're annoying.
1. Siren Lineage and other things

She honestly had no clue what to do now that she'd actually made it to Pandora without being shot or suffering an excruciatingly painful death. One look at the place she'd been dropped off at, and she could tell it was going to be months till she found civilisation.

Reaching into her haversack, she pulled out three pieces of slightly crumpled paper- The notes on Pandora she'd discovered while with that damned order. "Patricia Tannis, hmm?" She mumbled to herself, gaze locked on the two slightly faded words at the bottom of the paper. "Wait… Or is it Patricia Tamis?" She asked herself. The Ns were hard to read with all the creases.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH HEELLLLLLLLPPPPPP!" Someone screamed. The agonizing scream was deafening. However how this voice sounded… It was like how the man back on Athens had sounded when _he _had asked her to kill him.

She wouldn't let someone innocent die again. Reaching for the pistol at her hip, she sprinted to the small village behind her. Most of the buildings were sealed off with yellow tape, but one's door was ajar. The man had to be in there.

Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard sobbing coming from inside the building. She ran in, to find a man with his hands behind his head. Behind him, a man in a mask, holding up a tomahawk. She noted how the assailant had his knees apart, and his neck was… twitchy… His back was slouched, and he was laughing like a psycho.

"Err… Freeze! Get away from the man!" She shouted. Sure enough, she caught the psycho's attention.

"Aww, it's a little girlie!" The psycho exclaimed, his tomahawk held in a different angle. It took her like… 2.69 seconds to realize he was about to throw it at her. She rolled out of the way, before she realized… This psycho had an infinite supply, constantly hurling them at her.

"Ah, what the hell," She muttered, using her phase lock to keep him suspended in the air. The man turned back to see her tattoos glowing. "S-Siren!" He screamed, and wailed louder than before.

Maya aimed the revolver at the psycho, shooting him twice- one in the arm, the other in his neck. He fell to the ground in a pool of blood. She turned to find the man curled up in a corner.

"Seriously? I waste bullets on you, thus saving you from a painful death by some madman, and you thank me by showing me how extremely frightened you are of me? Not a single thank-you!" Maya sighed in exasperation. Wait. This man _might _know the location of Patricia whatever-her-last-name-was.

She grabbed the paper, throwing it on the ground next to him. "Patricia Ta-something. You know where she is?" He simply sat there, curled up in a ball. He was probably rocking back and forth at a small angle.

Maybe she could use this fear to her advantage… She pressed the gun to the back of his head. "Speak or die," She uttered somewhat murderously.

"Pa-Patricia Tannis! She's i-in sanctu-Sanctuary! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!" He begged. She brought her rifle away, reaching down to retrieve the research notes. She stepped outside, before someone tackled her to the ground.

"Hands behind your head, girlie," A gruff male voice snapped at her. She looked up to see seven men in red masks having their rifles aimed at her.

"She's a siren, boys! Jack'll give us that money!" He exclaimed, receiving snickers from the other men. She could only assume he was ogling at her ass, cause his next sentence came shortly after. "Maybe we can have some fun with her first!"

She had to get to her pistol, three skag corpses away.

Then came the gunshot that echoed across the desert. One of the man who had been aiming at her fell to the ground, a bullet hole neatly placed between his eyes. Then another. In a mere ten seconds, all were dead. She was free. Rising, she cocked her head backwards, to see him.

There he was, lowering his rifle. He watched her for awhile- how her blue hair swayed in the wind, before he turned and took off.

She wanted to thank him. For saving her from those bastards. Now she could only loot them, and she would follow him.

It had taken her an hour to hike up the cliff. Then she found remains of a fire. He had camped here, when he'd heard her gunshot clearly. There was nothing but a few pieces of wood put together to create a fire. And next to it, a brochure.

_Handsome Jack wants YOU to find the vault! Ever dreamt of riches beyond belief? Loot beyond your wildest dreams? The hottest chicks (Or men if you're a fag/ woman)? Come to Jack at the train depot near you to sign up now! _

And on the bottom, were two words, scratched into the brochure.

Don't follow.


	2. Face to Face

It was an hour later she came to regret following her saviour off into the desert. She wouldn't be hopelessly lost if she'd stayed at the shack after looting the marauders.

"What was I thinking, following some stranger into this… place?" If she did find him, what would she say? She followed him for days just to say thanks. Pathetic. Though she had to admit this 'Jack' guy was enticing, though he had this strong hatred for her kind.

She wanted the gold, weapons, and everything else. Surely they would benefit her in her quest to learn more about her siren lineage, in this wasteland they called Pandora. The problem was- how would she get onboard that train without being brutally murdered by whoever this Jack was?

"I'm not getting anywhere with all this thinking," She finally decided. She would find her saviour, and somehow follow him to the train depot to find Jack. For an hour, she'd followed his footprints, which were surprisingly light, and were slowly being swept away by the sand, which constantly got in her eye.

Then there was a bullet, which went straight through her knee. She screamed, collapsing to the ground. Swiftly, she pulled her revolver out of its holster, aiming it at the man who was making his way towards her. She was about to pull the trigger, until someone knocked her unconscious.

**The assassin**

"I was quite stupid/ Leaving the brochure behind/ Now she will follow," The masked man said to himself in a haiku- how he preferred to express himself.

At first, it had seen like a good idea- Using a knife to carve words into a brochure. That was sure to seem intimidating. But he completely forgot she was a siren, not easily intimidated, excellent at guns and other violent pursuits.

The Vault was to be his challenge, and the rewards should be all his. He'd heard of the loot before. It was said to be beyond any man's wildest dreams. The best guns, gold to last the most wasteful man a thousand years, and some other shit he didn't care about. With a partner, he'd get less rewards, and someone to hamper his progress, as seen how he had to save her.

"As I remain here/ The siren carries onward/ I must carry on," He thought to himself.

This was all rather new to him. Usually, he was the one doing the tracking and eventually, the killing. Now he was the hunted. Was there some sort of behaviour or pattern he had to follow as the hunted? His experience with previous killings would aid him. He had to do what she would never expect.

From previous assassinations, he knew to always watch his back. He turned his head, and saw her silhouette- blur, but still noticeable. Whipping out his rifle, he aimed at her, and watched as she folded her arms. She hadn't noticed him.

Then she turned in his direction. Zer0 remained still. Moving now would attract her attention further. Thank god she turned in another direction. Slowly, he inched toward a boulder to his right, hoping to get behind it, allowing him to be out of sight when he would shoot her down. He ducked, looking through the scope, which was aimed perfectly at her forehead. Before he knew it, she collapsed.

The words WTF appeared across his visor, as he lowered the scope. Her knee had been shot, and two marauders approached her.

"She will not follow/ Yet this burdens me slightly/ This is all my fault," He said to himself.

In a sense, he felt responsible for her capture. Had he not been so heroic as to rescue her, her knee would still be in perfect condition. Though the vault was all his now, he could not cope with knowing how an innocent woman's death was his fault.

He sighed, and then he walked off into the desert.

**The soldier, the child, and the gunzerker**

"Admit it, soldier, your turret can't beat all this badass-ery!" The redhead exclaimed, hanging off her digistructed robot with her metal arm. With her other (normal) arm, she took a shot at his turret with a corrosive firearm.

"You're fucking wrong, kiddo. Your robot doesn't have the firepower of my turre-" He was cut off by the redhead's robot, which fired a lazer at his turret, blowing it to bits. "Crap," He mouthed to himself, backing into a boulder behind him.

She smirked, as her robot disappeared into the ground with a flash of light. She twirled her gun a few times, aiming it at his head. "Money, weapons and whatever crap it is you have. Except your clothes, I don't wanna see you nude," She grinned.

He grunted, grabbing ten dollars from his pocket.

"Gaige, we didn't attack him to steal his shit," The short man who had came with her coaxed.

"Fine, Salvador. But don't blame me if we run out of stuff for the trip!" She said, putting her pistol back in place.

"Sorry, Amigo. The girl's a little violent at times. I just told her to scare you a little," Salvador said, helping him up.

"O-kay, and by that, you mean almost killing me with corrosive damage, midget?" He snapped, hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, sort of," Salvador grinned, not even insulted by his statement.

"Sorry to disturb your best friend time, but we've got company,"Gaige hissed, drawing her gun. Behind them, bandit cars made their way towards them. One fired a sawblade at Gaige, who deflected it with her metal arm.

"I'm surprised it didn't cut through your arm," The soldier remarked, reloading his assault rifle.

"I could crack your skull right now if I wanted to," Gaige responded, digistructing her robot. "Oh yeah, this is Deathtrap, also known as DT. It's not gonna kill you now, FYI."

The soldier threw his turret out, as Salvador readied two shotguns.

"Just in case we die, Amigo, I'd like to know your name," Salvador said, though he knew they weren't going to die anyway.

"Axton," He responded, as everyone opened fire.

**The Siren**

When Maya woke, she found her wrists bound, and her feet too. Her mouth was gagged, but she spit the cloth out with ease. She glanced from side to side, finding herself in a cell with simply a bed. Her vision was still a little blurry, but soon everything was clear.

She looked forward to see a man who wore a mask as well, though he was taller and didn't sound like a madman. His mask appeared more… Squared, and seemed more clothed as well. She squinted her eyes, making out a name tag on the right side of his chest.

_Hi, my name is Badass Marauder_

"Seriously, what kind of person calls themselves a badass marauder?" She thought to herself, rolling her eyes.

"You got a problem, siren?" He emphasised on the last word. Maya felt like shouting at him and strangling him right then and there, but she was in no position to fight.

He laughed, making his way towards the exit, leaving her there. She kept her head down for a few minutes, before she decided to look up once more.

If she was going to die, she'd die with some courage at least. She slowly tilted her head up and gasped. There, in the cell opposite hers, was another prisoner, with a big red zero on his chest.

When he tilted his head up, he was wearing a mask.

**A/N:**

**I love making cliffhangers so as to piss people off. Yeah, sorry about that. I will say I have to improve on my writing, since I'm more used to short stories rather than longer ones, so when I read other's May0 fanfiction, I'm like HOW DAFUQ DID YOU WRITE SO LONG. I WILL however, take this time to say the May0 fanfiction on this site is awesome, like dat Collateral Damage one. I check the site everyday, and now that the ending for the last chapter was like full of May0, I WANT MOAR NOW. SO bye. Pointless, poorly written note shall end here. **


	3. Decepti0n

He was simply there, staring at the ground, not moving an inch. She watched him for a minute or two, hoping for him to look up, though she wouldn't be able to see his face anyway. Her eyes remained glued to the top of his head, as though her glare would be able to control his movements. Though she was a siren, she had no such ability.

"What are you looking at?" She finally asked, slightly annoyed that he was ignoring her. He remained silent. She sighed, wriggling her wrists in an attempt to loosen her bonds. They were too tight.

Finally, he replied, as she was in the midst of undoing her bonds.

"Your eyes deceive you / I am but an illusion / I move for the kill," He spoke, though he remained still.

"Er… Was that a haiku? And you don't seem to be doing any moving or killing to me," Maya sarcastically remarked, going back to her bonds.

Then the guard returned. "The boss gave me permission to kill you, freak," He spat. Maya growled glaring at the guard, only to find he wasn't referring to her. He was going to execute the masked man.

"Touch him, and I'll kill you!" Maya spat, fighting against the ropes that kept her in place. She was about to phase lock him, when she realised it would do him no harm. She needed to be free to harm him.

"I'll like to see you try, bitch," He chuckled, unlocking the cell doors of his cell. The masked man rose, stepping out of his cell, walking towards the marauder. Maya watched in horror as he prepared his pistol, pressing it against the man's helmet, and he fired. Maya flinched, but noticed how the masked man had disappeared. The marauder almost lost his balance, eyes flickering everywhere in an attempt to locate him.

"What the-!" He yelled, before gurgling blood in his mouth. He stared down at his chest, to see a blade stuck through it, before it was pulled out of his body. In a few moments, he fell dead on the ground.

"A most confused death / Dead before he even knew / Where I had struck from," He said to himself, putting his blade back to its original position.

"What? How was that even possible? You- You just appeared out of nowhe-nowhere and then-!" He rudely cut her off.

"Quiet. Do you want to escape or not?" He asked in that dull voice, though it sounded as more of a sarcastic comment.

"Fine, just get me out of this cell and these damn bonds," Maya sighed. He had saved her twice now, and she did not like to appear to anyone as a weak child. He simply cut the lock off with his blade, crouching behind her and did the same with her bonds.

Maya stood up, shaking her wrists a little. Those bonds were uncomfortable.

"Don't I get a thanks?" He asked teasingly, and Maya noted how a ':P' emoticon showed up on his visor.

"Yeah, thanks, whatever."

**The Fantastic Three**

"Did you see that? I mean, he was all 'You can't get me, kid!' and then DT like went up to him and he EXPLODED! Like, FRIGGIN' EXPLODED!" Gaige exclaimed, holding up her robotic arm as a symbol of triumph.

Salvador, Axton and Gaige were sitting around a small campfire they had built after clearing a cave of skags. Axton was polishing his combat knife, whilst Salvador was lying with his head against a rock, which appeared mildly uncomfortable. But for a man charged with cannibalism and other acts, it seemed appropriate.

"Was this your first kill or something? Cause that's pretty normal nowadays," Axton smirked, putting his knife aside.

"Not really, I guess. There was this one girl on Eden 5. She shoved me, and DT just blew her up and stuff," Gaige shared, though her excitement seemed to have died down a little.

"That doesn't sound so bad, since you DID cut off your own arm," Axton remarked.

"AND built another single handedly!" Gaige added.

"Yeah, whatever, kid,"

**The Assassin and The Siren**

"Looks like you've saved me. Again," Maya said to him, slightly upset she couldn't have found her own way out of the bandit camp.

"I had to do it/ I was the one to blame for/ your recent capture," He responded, walking off.

"At least let me know your name!" Maya shouted at his silhouette, and he paused. He turned to face her, as a '0' appeared on his visor.

"Er… Zero?" She questioned. What kind of parent names their kid after a number, anyway? He responded with a smile emoticon, which she took as a yes.

"Alright… Zero… I'm going with you to this vault thing, and you will not stop me from following. I need to find out more about my siren lineage, and hey, why not make some money along the way?" She smiled. Zer0 shook his head, leaving her slightly disappointed. He stood there for a few seconds before speaking again.

"Fine, but if you get yourself killed, I don't care," Zer0 said, waiting for her to catch up to him. She smiled, jogging next to him.

**And again…**

"The map says it's that way. And as you can see, this rock next to us looks like a dick, and we can see it illustrated in great detail right over… There," Axton said, pointing at the map.

"So, it'll take us another day?" Salvador asked.

"Well, duh! I mean look at all the distance we gotta cover!" Gaige exclaimed, bobbing up and down in excitement. Axton led them on, which was reasonable since he was the only one with a map. Everyone was silent, Apart from the occasional sound of metal, since Gaige was using a screwdriver to tweak her robotic arm.

"Well… This is awkward."

**A/N:**

**Yeah, as I said, I have serious difficulty writing long stuff. SO there you have it. I decided to give I have serious difficulty writing long stuff. SO there you have it. I decided to give you a less tormenting cliffhanger. Huzzah to that crap.**


	4. FUN TRAIN RIDES OF DOOM!

The day began slowly. The first five hours of their journey were quiet, and peaceful for Maya. The silence gave her freedom to think about what lay ahead. The vault sounded familiar. Had Patricia mentioned it in the research notes? If so, that must prove sirens had some form of connection to the vault.

Could sirens be the creators of vaults? Could they be guardians in a sense? Protecting the contents from those not worthy of doing so?

The seventeenth time Zero created a haiku of how bored he was, lacking a challenge and all, Maya decided that if they weren't to be interrupted by some madman in a mask, Zero included, she might as well take some time to have a quick glance through the notes. Maybe even read them in detail, if there was sufficient time.

To glance through, she would need to search for specific details. In her head, she thought of several questions.

How many sirens are there in existence?

Are they in any way related to the vault?

If they had originated in Pandora, surely there had to be some connection. And her final question was expected.

What should one expect in the vault?

Surely loot of such rarity would be protected than something other than psychopaths and marauders. Maybe monsters or ancient warriors. Somewhat exaggerated, but on a place like Pandora, maybe such monstrosities did exist.

"Maya," Zero snapped her out of her trance. She didn't even get the chance to read the first page in full. His timing was downright terrible for an assassin with decoys and digistructed katanas. Who knows, maybe he was just another decoy, drawing her away from the vault?

"I see blood ahead/ we should take a closer look/ Scavenge for ammo," He suggested. Maya looked up, and there was indeed blood on the sand. Next, lay the half torn apart corpse of a psycho.

If she were still on Athens, she would scream, and those bastards in the cult would ask her to kill the murderer, or whoever they assumed was. Perhaps Pandora had driven out the slightest bit of remorse or disgust from her in a few days. Maybe it had that effect on others. It was pointless to test that point with Zero, seeing as how he appeared as the kind who'd been killing for a living.

She noticed how the large open wounds in his body resembled those of bite marks. Zombies? Highly unlikely. A skag must have ripped him apart.

"Must have been a skag," She pointed out, expecting some sarcastic remark from her travelling partner like 'Well duh, I can see that', but instead, he simply squatted down next to the psycho, analysing the mask.

"No. He was shot in the head," Zero pointed out. Well, he was both right and wrong. The psycho was stabbed in the head, but a large section of it was missing. An unnaturally large amount of bullets must have been directed at his skull. Such a thing could only be done by a robot- A turret to be exact.

"Who in the world brings a turret to Pandora?" Maya mumbled, though comprehensible to the point whereby Zero heard her clearly.

"Only a coward/ A true man fights for himself/ Not with a turret," He said, confirming Maya's guess that it was caused by a turret. Though some skag surely did come along and bite large chunks out of it.

"I guess you're right," Maya responded, though his words did have some meaning. Could he somehow be implying that sirens were cowards for relying on their natural born abilities to aid them in combat?

"We should proceed now/ We have almost arrived there/ The vault awaits us," He stated, rising to continue their journey.

"Yeah, ok Mr. Dramatic Assassin," Maya said indifferently, following him through the desert.

**These three idiots**

"Those two dudes better hurry the hell up, this boredom sucks," Gaige groaned, lying on the ground, her legs unnaturally placed against the wall, upright. Salvador liked her. How she clearly took no regard of personal hygiene, and how violence and danger never deterred her. Also, how she blindly chopped her own arm off and built a prosthetic with the arm she used less often.

"You know Amigo, when those two idiots get here, I'm gonna beat the crap outta them!" Salvador exclaimed, clearly overly excited about beating the shit out of latecomers.

Axton simply disregarded that note, though it seemed possible, seeing as how this midget was a cannibal, though he claimed it was because he was starving out in the Dust.

Axton turned his attention to the redhead, who was trashing her prosthetic about, creating dents in the ground and wall. Normally, such impact would crack the bones, but he could figure out she didn't feel the pain at all.

Ignoring the constant swearing from the midget, and the loud sounds of metal connecting with the train floor, which miraculously hadn't broken, he walked to the front door, where two loaders were keeping guard, hoping to spot two silhouettes in the distance. Sadly, the sandstorm made visibility poor, and things were terrible.

He had to admit, Salvador made him uneasy. The midget could in fact, catch them off guard and rip them apart. As for Gaige, he didn't want to touch her, in fear that the robot would blow him up, just like how it had did so with Marcie-something some time ago.

"Weeee! I'm so bored!" Gaige exclaimed. The boredom must have driven her insane.

**Our lovely ship-y couple…**

"Well, finally. I thought we'd be out here for days!" Maya exclaimed, sweating all over and clearly exhausted.

"Exaggerating/I told you it was nearby/ You didn't listen," Zero remarked.

After some pointless banter about whether Maya had listened, she found herself too exhausted to counter Zero's impossibly smart comebacks, and gave in to the fatigue. She collapsed onto Zero, whose visor showed the words 'WTF BRO', though she was clearly of another gender. He shoved her off, watching her still body for a moment. Fantastic, he'd have to carry her the remaining distance.

He lifted her body, placing one arm around her shoulder, dragging her limp body towards the train, which he could faintly see in the distance.

**Everyone is together now. What a great family reunion. *Slow clap* Yay, hip hip hooray for this shit.**

Fortunately, Salvador was lying. Or maybe not, seeing as he didn't want to punch an unconscious woman until she shit her pants. Zero maybe, but the mask just creeped him out.

"Well, mask dude, what's your name?" _Or if you even HAVE one. _Axton asked, extending a hand in friendship, or not.

"Zero, like the number," He responded.

"And, your unconscious girlfriend?" _Who is, not to mention, really hot. _Axton asked again, voice somewhat strained.

"Maya. My assistant," He replied. Axton figured that meant they weren't in a relationship.

Zero only said the last bit as a joke. Maya would kill him if she was awake. And sadly, she was. Just in time to hear what he'd said. She hit him with the butt of her revolver, sending him tumbling down.

"Really, Zero? Assistant?" Maya snapped.

He flashed a sad face over his visor.

"Oh, and if you call me this dick's girlfriend again, I am shoving this revolver up your ass!" Maya threatened, shoving the revolver against Axton's forehead.

"Ouch," Zero whispered. He clearly meant it for him and Axton. Her insult, though not exactly offensive, hurt him a little, and it would definitely hurt if a revolver was shoved up one's ass.

Soon, Maya's temper died down a little after sitting in a corner, and Zero was a little annoyed, with Gaige questioning him how his visor managed to flash holographic images of emoticons and other things.

Then the train doors closed, and their transportation began moving. Maya stood up, clearly a little more calm than before, and they began roaming around the train to pass the time.

When Zero appeared behind her, Maya sighed.

"Yeah, sorry about earlier," She apologised. Zero smiled behind his mask. A genuine one.

"Apology accepted, assistant," Zero replied. Maya was about to rip his head off, when she heard the sounds of guns being aimed at them. Everyone turned, to find their cheesy welcome sign replaced by one that said 'TO YOUR DOOM! (nothing personal)'.

Then everyone sorta did their own thing.

Axton pulled out a turret which stuck to the ceiling, firing away at loaders. Maya held back laughter, remembering how Zero had called the turret guy a coward, and they'd found him. She turned to glance at Zero to see his reaction, but he had disappeared through a hatch in the ceiling. Well, talk about a coward.

Axton pulled out a rocket launcher, and Maya raised her arms to shield her face from the explosion. Quickly, she phase locked the loaders that approached, throwing them outside.

She was surprised to see Gaige screaming and killing engineers madly with a robot by her side. This just so happened to give her faith in the future, knowing such great people would be in charge of their lives in say, 20 or so years.

Salvador emerged, shooting at loaders with two guns in each hand, showing off his strength for someone of such short height.

Zero was still missing, though she knew he was on board.

There were three possibilities.

One: He was hiding somewhere

Two: He was killing things

Three: He got killed or committed suicide by jumping into the ravine below them.

Soon, he returned with blood staining his katana, proving that option two was in fact, correct. They were all gathered around the door, and after Axton did a brief headcount, he kicked the door open, to reveal something horrific. A dummy surrounded by bombs. They ran as far as they could, ignoring the recording that was clearly meant for them.

Then the explosion sounded, and Maya felt strong arms wrap around her waist. Someone was shielding her from the explosion. In those final moments, she stared at the blank visor in front of her. Then everything was black.

**A/N:  
Earlier than expected. I can honestly say the train thing didn't go so smoothly. But thanks for reading, and I was happy to see I had 826 views. **


	5. I HAVE A MESSAGE

I would like to take this time to say:

Sorry for no updates. School is pretty shitty right now. I might get it done before April ends.

BUTT before that, I just needed to have some voting thing which I need yer' help with in ze reviews section.

Continue fanfiction with the entire game storyline. (Longer time between updates)

Only continue with scenes of May0 at any time in the storyline. Like skipping unnecessary bits and only giving you the crap you came for. You'll get to request for certain scenarios.

With that said, thanks for giving me dat support and stuff. (2000 views- It might be from haters but whatever).


	6. THE FIRST ECHO

Echo #1

Maya:

Ugh… Gaige coaxed me into this. She told me ECHO logs were a nice way to pass the time, or at least better than reading Tannis' notes.

I'm going to save the niceties. I'm a vault hunter. That being said, I should probably introduce the other four hunters on my side, or at least I think they're on my side. Axton, probably the only sane one on the team. Salvador, the cannibalistic midget. Gaige, the mechromancer, and… Eh… Zero, the masked assassin. Not to mention the extremely sarcastic, cocky bastard.

Sure, he's saved me more than once, but that doesn't give me a proper reason to be forever in his debt, right? I'm not some princess locked away in a tower who'll kiss whoever the hell rescues me. I'm a siren, an expert fighter.

The last two weeks have been spent helping a yellow robot on a wheel. Also, he claims to be our master, when we've helped him on more than one occasion. First, saving his gentlemanly friend and thus fixing his eye, and secondly killing the bandit who tortures him. It's bad enough I have to be on the same team as this kill-stealing masked freak.

Zer0: Freak?

Maya: Shut it, you creepy shit!

Anyway, the guy's showing off. I had a chance to kill Flynt, and he just had to use his fancy sniping rifle to finish the pyromaniac off before I could!

Zer0: He would have killed you/ The shot I fired saved you/ You should be thankful

Maya: Stop showing off, Zero. And don't interrupt my ECHO log.

Let's hope Zero stops with the 'I saved you' crap, and proceed. Sanctuary is just two days away. Currently, we're on claptrap's boat. This mission to Sanctuary not only brings us a little closer to killing the son of a bitch who blew up the train, but also brings me closer to learning more about sirens. Tannis. She must know about the others. Maybe she's one too. Perhaps my duty is here on Pandora. Maybe this is where I belong, where I should have been all along.

I would describe my past, but it's better that you're left in the dark.

Axton: Left in the dark? You practically spent the entire log talking about our whereabouts. Well, not everything. You spent half of it complaining about Zero.

Zero: Correct.

Maya: Well I'm sorry, it's not my fault our teammate is an arrogant dick.

Zer0: Very insulting-

Axton: Hey, look on the bright side, we got someone to watch our back.

Zer0: You interrupted my haiku.

Axton: Oh, sorry buddy.

Zer0: Apology ac-

Maya: Axton, don't you mean steal our kills?

Zer0: *FML* Always interrupted…

Axton: See it however you want. I just like having someone to support us.

Maya: As I was trying to say, I need to learn more about sirens. From revisiting the notes multiple times and observing Pandora's climate, I have come to a hypothesis. Sirens are related to the vaults, perhaps they act as guardians, maybe even responsible.

Gaige: Maya, that's not how you ECHO. It's gotta be interesting, funny and badass. You don't just go on blabbering about your life story. No one's gonna hear that.

Maya: Well, no one's gonna hear this anyway. As you can see, everyone's been throwing their ECHO logs anywhere they want. Only the psychos listen to them, and they probably don't understand anyway!

Gaige: True, but you could just keep them and listen to them when you're bored. I mean, it's like a digital frikin' diary. Except it's prob gonna be heavier.

Maya: You know what, I'm done with this ECHO nonsense.

**A/n: Short chapter. NO, I wasn't working on this for the past few weeks. I'm working on another chapter at the moment, and I thought I could use this for fun.**

**Now I respond this question.**

**GUEST: SaddleCreeper is a Minecraft thing. I had a dream of putting a saddle on a creeper and BLOWING EVERY FUCKING THING UP. **

**Expect chapter to be up within the next MONTH.**

**Also, I'm working on a non-May0 fic.**

K THX BYE don't be mad with me for making a short chapter.


	7. I'm on a boat

**A/N: Sorry about this, but I've decided to skip this little portion of meeting Sir Hammerlock-Killing Flynt (That how you spell it? Haven't played in ages.) Due to time constraints, I thought I should probably write the GOING TO SANCTUARY part of the game, since it would be more interesting. BUT if you want to see what happened before this, you can let me know.**

**Reminder: Maya does not know Zer0 saved her, and Zer0 refuses to inform her, as he's a humble dude.**

**Also, thanks for the 4000 views! And again, if you're reading this because you hate this ship or you hate me, then you have the permission to express yourself through the use of REVIEWS. (Pfft… I don't go like 'UGGGH TERRIBLE' every time I read a Maya/Axton or whatever fic.)**

**LONG AUTHOR'S THING IS LONG (That's what she said :P)**

"Unce, unce wub wub wub!"

Claptrap wasn't the best beatboxer, yet he insisted on showing off his skills to the sleeping vault hunters. Maya had been awoken long ago when Claptrap had first rolled in. The cult had told her to be aware even in her sleep, for one might sneak up on her and kill her. She knew Claptrap surely didn't know how to kill something, but she'd woken up clutching her knife, fearing she'd find someone with a blade to her throat or a gun to her head. Zer0.

She'd seen him kill bandits, in search of a challenge. She'd seen him smiling with that visor of his at a decapitated man. She was a siren. Surely he'd think of that as a challenge.

Her eyes followed Claptrap's movements, though her mind was elsewhere. Would one of her allies betray her whilst in search of a challenge? He might even be watching her, thinking of ways to end her life.

Axton had a pillow over his head, blocking out the crappy dubstep noises claptrap was making, while Salvador was sleeping like a baby.

"_Where I come from, Amigo, we slept to the sounds of men getting their limbs ripped off!" _He had once told her.

"Claptrap, you piece of crap, we're trying to sleep!" Gaige screamed at the top of her lungs, causing Axton to squirm about on the ground, and unsurprisingly, Salvador remained asleep with a smile on his face.

"I'm cutting your pay, teenage minion!" Claptrap threatened, rolling outside, grumbling.

"Oh hey, masked minion!" She heard him exclaim once he left the room.

Zer0 was outside? What's he doing? All the questions were making her head ache. She'd might as well go outside to get some fresh air _and, not to mention, _find out what that arrogant, sarcastic assassin was up to.

She peered from behind the doorframe to see him steering the ship. She heaved a sigh of relief, walking towards him.

"Zer0, how much longer till we get there?" She asked.

He remained silent, eyes glued to the wheel.

"Answer me, you idiot," She snapped.

And then her eyes widened. She peered down to her chest, to find a glowing blue blade thrust through her heart.

"Zer0," She weakly managed, dropping to the ground. The last thing she saw was the bright red zero on his visor.

"Maya."

"Maya!"

She woke to find Gaige watching her worriedly, gripping her shoulders.

"You okay? You kept shouting in your sleep," Gaige asked, somewhat relieved.

"It's nothing, just a bad dream," Maya responded, putting a hand to her forehead.

Gaige snickered. "You sound like a little kid saying that!"

"Shut up, Gaige. I'm going outside," She snapped, tiptoeing to the door, not wanting to wake Axton, who insisted on sleeping with a combat knife in his hand. "Any moment now, we'll arrive at Sanctuary," Axton whispered in his sleep.

Maya nearly screeched when she saw _him _at the wheel, as he was in her dream. She gripped her hunting knife, readying it.

"Zer0?" She whispered. He didn't respond. And then she knew he was behind her, preparing to strike. She whipped her head back to find him there, though not as she imagined. In one swift move, he poured a bucket of water over her head, LOL showing on his visor.

"Bastard!" She hissed, tackling him to the ground, water from her hair dripping onto his visor. He kicked her back, quickly getting back onto his feet.

"What was that for?" Maya questioned, spitting water out of her mouth.

"What's the knife for?" He replied, refusing to answer her question.

"I-It's nothing," She stammered, placing it back on her belt. It was obvious she couldn't tell Zer0 about her dream, and that she intended to kill him with it.

"Don't change the s-subject!" Maya exclaimed, still shivering from the cold.

"You look cold," Zero remarked, noticing her teeth chattering.

"You don't say, you just poured a bucket of ice-cold water over me!" Maya said, still pinning him to the ground.

"My shoulders hurt," Zero said dully, as though he was not listening to her. Maya looked down, to see her hands balled into fists, which were pressed down into his shoulders.

"Ugh," Maya placed her fists on the ground above his shoulders, continuing with her interrogation.

"Did I miss something? Or should I leave," Axton asked from the door frame, eyes wide. At first, Maya thought he was referring to how wet she was and why she and Zero were fighting, but it didn't take her long to realise he had different thoughts. Only then, she noticed the position she and Zero were in, and she stood up hastily, scowling. "Zero, you asshole," Maya muttered under her breath, though Zero seemed to have heard her insult.

"Did I interrupt… something?" Axton questioned, though he seemed more shocked than mischievous. He expected Maya to be interested in someone not… Zero. Well, clearly not himself. Even he knew he was terrible at relationships. "You know what, don't even answer, I'm going back to bed."

The moment Axton disappeared behind the wall, Maya lunged at Zero once more, only to hit the ground… hard. The Zero she had been aiming for disappeared, to reveal the true Zero perched on the roof. Elegantly, though somewhat dangerously, he pounced on her, and for a few seconds, she remained on the ground, startled.

Maya felt herself blushing as she looked up into his helmet, but she quickly dismissed it, turning her face away. _Damnit, Zero. How are you doing this?_

"Can I know why you poured cold water over me now?" Maya asked, trying to distract herself.

"I was really bored/ You are an easy target/ Thus explaining this," He finally said to her.

Maya found her embarrassment replaced by anger, much to her relief. The thought of her being shy around this assassin made her want to puke.

"E-Easy?! Are you looking for a fight, Zero?! If so, I'm not afraid of you!" Maya snapped, fighting against Zero's grip on her.

"You do realise the position you're in?" Zero reminded her. And sadly, he was right. She was in no position to be making threats.

"Fine, let me get up, and I swear I won't kill you," Maya groaned, not pleased with the fact that she had to be polite to Zero. He stepped back, letting her get to her feet. Surprisingly enough, she kept to her promise, returning to her sleeping bag.

The night went surprisingly well. Claptrap stopped with the dubstep, after Gaige summoned Deathtrap who had chased Claptrap around the boat for a minute or so. Zero appeared to be nocturnal, staying up the entire night to steer the boat to Sanctuary. Salvador woke early, sitting outside with Zero for some fresh air. Axton and Gaige remained there sleeping like babies, since they'd been the once affected by Claptrap's shit dubstep the most.

When Maya woke, Claptrap was sleeping in a corner of the room being completely silent, and she could hear the laughter of a very drunk Salvador outside. Sighing, she made her way to the spot where Salvador and Zero were relaxing.

"Morning, amigo! Zero and I were having a drink!" Salvador exclaimed, appearing lightheaded and cheery, the bottle in his hands explaining his happier-than-usual self. Maya turned her attention to Zero, who was sitting with his legs crossed and had a holographic smile on his visor. Strangely, he had a bottle of rakk-ale in his hands too.

"Zero, did you take off your mask to drink that?" Maya asked, noticing how unstable he was too. Zero shook his head from side to side (Exaggerated-ish). Maya was both relieved but frightened at the same time. How did he manage to consume it in the first place? But thankfully, she hadn't missed out on seeing his face.

"How the hell did you drink it then?" Maya inquired, trying her best to sound polite. Zero made no sound in response, only lifting the bottle to where his mouth should be, pouring it all over his visor. The drink stained the ground, and you guessed it, Zero got more drunk than before.

"I'm not even going to think about how you did that."

And at the right moment, Gaige popped her head out the window and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"LAND!"

That seemed to stir Axton and Claptrap from their slumber. Maya turned to the direction Gaige was facing, followed by Salvador and Zero, who had fallen once or twice. She was right, even in the drowsy state she was in. Just ahead, they could see more mountains and shit to blow up.

"Well, let's get ready for some more murder, then," Maya said to herself, reloading her weapons.

The welcome party was nice. Upon stepping onto the snow-covered ground, multiple bullymongs appeared, ready to beat the crap out of all of them. Maya phase-locked the largest, while Axton and Salvador opened fire. Gaige and Deathtrap were taking care of the smaller ones, the brats and the monglets. Zero was perched on a rock, taking out a few adults with his sniping rifle. Soon, the vault hunters were surrounded by bullymong carcasses, and were busy picking up all the loot. (Bullymongs have cash in their heads! Who knows what they use it for!)

Just when they were about to waste it all on MOAR GUNS, Zero shouted for their attention.

"Badass!"

And a giant bullymong appeared, hurling stones at them. It took long, but they killed it. Next to Flynt, it was one of the tougher things they'd encountered. But there were bigger problems in their way. A car-digistructing device shouting at them and stopping them from getting a ride.

**A/N:**

Woooooooooo! MORE author's notes. Finally got this shit done and I AM PLEASED. Exam period, got crap to do. Kay bye.


	8. The Assassin and the Siren

**A/N: In case you didn't hear the news, I got a tumblr, and I'll post sneak peeks there. The link is on my profile.**

Zero glanced at his newfound companions. He liked to analyze them, to notice changes in their skills and relationships.

Claptrap had vanished, went off somewhere. His ability to disappear and magically reappear confused Zero.

Gaige was occupied with the car-digistructing thing, doing her best to hack it. Despite being a child prodigy at robotics, he could tell she was having trouble with it. Beads of sweat were rolling down her cheek, despite the cold weather, and her arms seemed weak, as though she was getting tired. She muttered a swear under her breath, as Scooter's infuriating message played again. She was not going to give up though- her determined expression made it clear. To be honest, he felt that they were alike in a sense. They enjoyed a challenge, wanted to test their limits. Though she was more aloof than him. She was the kind to rush into battle, unaware of the risks. At first, he had seen her as weak, despite her arm and bitch-exploding-floating robot. The first time she'd charged into battle yelling ANARCHY, he was a little… Shocked. She was dangerous, and for that, she deserved his respect.

Axton was laughing with Salvador about something, but from their incoherent rambling he could make out at least three words- Sanctuary, rakk-ale, explosions. Oh god, he didn't want to know what they were planning. No matter how much of a challenge that sounded like, he would have to refuse participating in their presumed terrorist attack. Their expressions and mannerisms said enough about them. Childish, insane, carefree. Half the time they made no sense, but he recognized them for their proficiency in firearms. Then came to one who left him slightly confused… The siren.

He stole a glance at her. She had that faraway look in her eyes with her arms folded. She was thinking. Perhaps about her lineage, as she had mentioned on more than one occasion before boarding the train. Or maybe she was calculating the chances of Gaige successfully hacking the machine. Either way, she was not what he expected of a siren. He had read myths before, and how sirens utilised their beauty to trick sailors, then rip them apart mercilessly. He was perfectly sure she was capable of ripping someone apart, but she was different. She had no intention in beauty, or… seduction, he even had to admit she was clever, preferring knowledge over looks. He would never let anyone know but she interested him. She truly deserved his admiration more than the others.

OH, and meanwhile, Salvador and Axton were discussing blowing people up and stealing their Rakk-ale in Sanctuary.

Finally, Maya decided to break the ice.

"Guys, we need to get that Hyperion part," She suggested. "In case Gaige can't hack the damn machine."

Gaige turned to glare at Maya, grinding her teeth together. "Dude, are you doubting my freakin' skills?"

"I wasn't offending you, Gaige. I'm trying to save time," Maya reasoned, and Gaige seemed satisfied.

Maya stared at them, waiting for anyone to volunteer themselves. Not even Salvador was willing to kill bandits. He was too wrapped up in his discussion.

"Fine, I'll go myself," Maya grumbled, reloading her pistol. And then, just when she thought things couldn't get any worst, Zero piped up.

"I volunteer."

Maya sometimes felt bad about insulting Zero so much. So she decided to correct herself.

"Zero, I have something to say."Zero displayed a question mark on his visor.

"We haven't been… Getting along as of recently… Sorry about that," Maya apologized (Somewhat reluctantly).

Well that's how she wished things went. IN reality it went this way:

"Zero, let's stop bitching around and get this job done, alright?"

"Your words have meaning/ Apology accepted/ Let us kill things."

And with that the massacre began. Zero grabbed his sniper rifle, taking out three of the psychos. Maya took aim at one of the marauders, killing him with her SMG. Quickly, she dove for cover behind a crate as a couple nomads began firing at her. A suicide psycho came charging towards her, but Zero shot its head off. Maya jumped back to avoid his bomb, which had fallen while he was dead, silently thanking Zero. She owed him, but hopefully he'd forget about it.

Maya's ability to suddenly go on a murderous rampage impressed Zero. He watched her run across the camp with her SMG in hand, shooting everything that moved. He was getting distracted again. He tore his eyes away from her, quickly sniping one of the nomads which had seen him. He figured Maya would be able to handle the rest on her own, so he began to search the area for this adapter. The distinct noise of gunfire stopped, and Zero assumed she had killed everyone. Then a rather out-of-place shade of yellow caught his attention- the kind that Hyperion seemed to favour. He swerved his body to the direction he had seen it, and there it was- the adapter. Maya seemed to have noticed as well and was dashing over. She scooped it into her arms, her back a little slouched. It must have been heavy.

"There!" Came the shout of a psycho, and a bunch of bandits came rushing out of the tents. There had to be a respawn station in there. Sadly, with the amount of bandits that were trying to kill them, that left no time for looting. Zero took aim, and the murderous rampage of the assassin and the siren continued.

It was surprisingly easy obtaining the Hyperion adapter, despite the amount of nomads and crazed Marauders. The hard part was driving. Salvador had escaped on his own vehicle, whilst Axton and Gaige had sped off before Maya and Zero could even notice.

"Axton, let me ask you a question," Maya had asked. "Did you just so happen to tell, or at least accidentally let Gaige know what happened on the boat?"

Axton was silent for a few seconds, and all that could be heard was Gaige shooting multiple bullymongs. Then he finally responded.

"Nope," He responded quickly, and Maya could tell he had crashed into a boulder due to Gaige's distinct shouting in the background.

"You're lying, aren't you?" She sighed.

"N-no. One hundred percent honest," He stammered.

"Damn you, Axton!" She snapped, stopping the ECHO chat immediately.

For the next few minutes, no one made a sound, with the exception of Maya, who began rambling incoherently about Axton, as she and Zero went through the trail Salvador had cleared in his drunken rampage. For once, Maya wanted something to kill. She needed to shoot something. Badly. There was something wrong with her mind. Every time she was around Zero, she couldn't think straight. Her first guess was that he pissed her off so much she just couldn't think about anything else but killing him… Then killing him again once he respawned, thus causing him to lose a significant amount of cash, but that wasn't the point. Then her other assumption. She was definitely not in-

"You could be of help/ If you kill the bullymong there/ Thank you in advance," Zero said, completely unaware that he could kill the bullymong himself with the gun in front of the vehicle. Maya sighed, as she began shooting it.

She thought of Zero as arrogant, full of ego, and absolutely creepy. She hated him at first, how he'd come to her rescue. She refused to be thought of as a damsel in distress. It was shameful and stereotypical. She did all she could to ensure Zero would not see her as such. Maybe he didn't. Maybe he just saw her as someone to mess around with. Maybe he saw her as a challenge. Either way, it terrified her. It terrified her that she could get so uneasy at the sight of him.

Out of all places, she would not allow herself to be distracted by someone on Pandora. But now, it was time to get to Sanctuary.

Maya was bored to death by the time she arrived at the gates of Sanctuary. Salvador had apparently stopped somewhere to violently murder some bandits. Axton and Gaige got into a freak accident with their car, and were still headed back. Somehow, Zero's terrible driving had kept them alive throughout the ride. It was truly a miracle.

"Zero, slow down we're about to hit the damn gate," Maya warned him, but it was useless. Zero accelerated the vehicle, crashing into the psycho ahead.

"Well that's a nice way to ask for an invitation into Sanctuary," Maya grumbled sarcastically, as Zero elegantly hopped out of the vehicle.

"You bloodshots can forget about entering Sanctuary!" Came a voice over ECHO. Maya and Zero traded confused looks. They had no idea what bloodshots were. Maybe it was a Sanctuary slang for vault hunter or something.

"Axton you're paying for that respawn," Gaige grumbled, checking her arm as she emerged from respawn with Axton behind her.

"Fine, how much?" Axton asked, checking his inventory.

"Seven hundred."

"What the hell, how much money did you have on you?"

"A little," Gaige giggled nervously, fiddling with her thumbs.

Then, Salvador decided to come through respawn, shouting something in Spanish. They didn't want to know what it meant Anyway, they could only assume he had gotten killed by one of the bandits from the camp he had run off to. And then, he decided to take his anger out on the respawn station. A midget. Beating the crap out of a respawn station.

Axton and Gaige started screaming, trying to pull Salvador back from the machine.

Then Maya and Zero came.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Maya asked, raising a brow at the enraged Salvador.

"Help! PSYCHO MIDGET ON THE LOOSE!" Gaige screamed, doing her best to hold Salvador back. For a midget, he was strong. Zero was amused. He sat in his seat, displaying a LOL on his visor as he watched them. Maya on the other hand, was in no mood for bullshit. She phaselocked Salvador, who remained suspended in the air.

"Come on, we need to find this Reiss guy if we're going to get into Sanctuary. Now if any of you fuck this up, I. Will. Kill. That person," Maya said with enough authority to stop Salvador from damaging the respawn station any more than he already had. With that, Maya let her hand fall to her side, and Salvador crashed into the snow.

The other three sulked off to the nearest Catch-A-Ride, while the impatient Maya had decided to begin searching with Zero. Suddenly, Zero started to rethink his previous statement. She_ did_ deserve his admiration, _only_ if she could manage her temper.

Maya watched the diamond on her minimap.

"Zero, we're here," Maya announced, and Zero stopped the car, as they both got off. Zero took the lead with a shotgun in hand, rather than his signature sniper rifle. He seemed to be proficient with all kinds of guns- long range, close range, whatever. Maya did _not_ want to end up having to fight him.

Maya followed him blindly. She found it… attractive, how he ran somewhat elegantly yet at the same time, he was ready to kill. She was losing it. Her sanity, slowly draining away, by Zero. She was sure of it.

Had she not snapped out of it herself, she would have crashed into him, when he stopped abruptly, raising his arm.

"Badass!" Came his voice (If it even was).

Then Maya found herself face to face with the largest freakin' Psycho she had ever seen.

**A/N: Honesty is the best policy, right? So here it is- I have never written romance before, so feedback is appreciated here. Also, here's the sad part- I have****…**** misplaced my copy of Borderlands 2 (SHIT) but I am close to finding it, fortunately****…**** SO pretty much, I might have left out important points in the missions. Also, I am lazy to youtube it. Bye.**


	9. The Refuge

**A/N: I should probably answer questions and whatnots I get in the reviews section. So now, I shall take the time to do so. Badly.**

**Anonymous reader (Chapter 7): Nah I'm not offended. I know how to take advice and feedback unless if it's phrased crappily, and you sir did phrase your feedback politely. Thanks for dat feedback btw.**

**MrsDeth (Chapter 8): THANKS GURL. I think you're a girl at least.**

**Romance (Chapter 8): Glad to hear I'm doing the lurve right. I often read shippy fics but it's a whole different thing writing one. WANNA HEAR A SPOILER? Tiny Tina will be the love counselor. I'm not doing this cause I want someone to give Maya advice, but because I MUST see Tina being all love-doctorish. **

**Also, I intend for this fanfiction to last thirty chapters. Once it's complete, there will be a two month break before I release a sequel, complete with 2 OCs. One spoiler I can give you for the sequel is that I am including a special OC who I'd like to call Lady Maliwan. The CEO of Maliwan where **_**Form has function or whatever the hell it is.**_

**Yeah k thx now read the damn story.**

Its arms were horrifyingly uneven, one twice as large as the other. His voice resembled that of its smaller counterpart, which suddenly seemed a bit less intimidating whilst standing next to this oversized psychopathic freak. His head was enlarged, and in his larger hand, he gripped a buzz saw, which was much larger and seemingly sharper as well. He seemed incapable of holding a gun, and depended solely on melee. Yet, this saw was just as powerful as any gun he could've wielded.

Imagine being chased by a bull- With lasers. That, in a nutshell, was how Maya felt at the moment, running from this towering freak of a psycho. Every time she wanted to turn, it would be an arm's length away, ready to strike. This left her completely useless and unable to fire a single bullet.

Zero had cowardly disappeared with his Decepti0n skill. The only useful thing he'd done was decapitate one of the psychos who had beaten the crap out of Reiss, who was curled up in a ball, trying to fight the pain that resulted from his wounds.

Maya never stopped running, and she had surprisingly high stamina. When she turned she was greeted by the grotesque sight of its left arm hanging and flailing loosely (AND uselessly) at its side. Honestly, this terrified her. She resumed with her hopeless, seemingly eternal-lasting running around Reiss' injured body. Then the psycho stopped. Maya mentally applauded herself for having more stamina than the giant psycho.

As you might have expected, the psycho was not tired. He just wanted to throw buzz axes at Maya, who started wondering why every psycho she had come across had an infinite amount of buzz axes. This one had extremely, inhumanely good aim, and in one throw, he had taken out her shield.

"Crap," Maya mouthed. Fortunately, Salvador came to the rescue. Heroically, he jumped into the clearing, gunzerking with a shotgun and an assault rifle. All seemed to be going well, until a rakk knocked him off the cliff. So it was then Salvador started wishing he could take fall damage, since now he had to climb up the entire bloody mountain. Damn Pandora and its fucked up gravity.

Thankfully Axton and Gaige were actually cautious when it came to rushing into battle. Also, they actually had a strategy, albeit a rather simple one. Gaige summoned Deathtrap, who shot the rakks down with its lasers. Gaige shot at the badass psycho from a distance.

Only then did Maya realize what an idiot she was. She had freakin' siren powers. Immediately, she raised her arm and phaselocked the badass, moments before it was about to leap on her and rip her throat out. Zero then materialized at the shelter nearby, gladly accepting the opportunity to get multiple headshots off it. Thank the producers of the HUD for letting them see the health of enemies, and noticing the red bar meant to represent its health was now just a small line, Maya dashed over and punched it, killing it as it exploded into a shiny pile of loot, ammo and some weird ass gun.

"Oh look a Maliwan!" Gaige exclaimed, picking up the corrosive pistol in glee. Salvador (Who had arrived recently) seemed upset about it not being a Torgue gun and made his way over to the shelter. His loot senses were tingling. Zero hopped down next to Maya.

"Oh hey, Zero, you damn coward. Wait, where did you get that fire-ish sniping rifle?" She noticed, pointing at the orange-glowing rifle sitting happily in Zero's hands. She didn't recognize it.

Salvador's next shout gave her the answer,"Ey, who the hell took all the guns?" Of course. While they were off fighting the psycho, Zero had run off to loot _**everything.**_

So Zero and Maya found themselves engaged in a wrestling match. _Touching each other, on top of each other… __**BEATING THE CRAP OUTTA EACH OTHER… **_

**Two broken noses, one detached limb and three respawns later…**

Reiss had died, much to the Vault hunters' disappointment. They wanted him to give them more guns, rather than a quest to get a power core- which they retrieved after what seemed like a pointless waste of time, ammo and blood. Of course, so as to get back at Zero, Maya had taken the loot, though most of it went to Salvador who rushed up in a drunken rage. It seemed to be a game now, one that involved ignoring everything shooting them and going solely for the loot. Axton and Gaige were not enthusiastic to join them, preferring to relish the feeling of exploding someone's head or simply tearing them apart with bullets.

So after much disappointment, they finally found themselves back at the gates of Sanctuary, after a pleasant message from their beloved target.

"So, you made it to banditville huh? That's great, it'll be nice to see a friendly face when I'm burning that place to the ground!" Handsome Jack cooed over ECHO. Zero did not seem bothered. Actually, no one did. They had gotten used to the douche's rambling and constant boasting. The only one who did appear to be troubled was Gaige, who was left screaming**, "BITCH I'LL TEAR YOU TO PIECES!"** Other than that, all seemed fine.

After a brief meeting with Lt. Davis, they shoved the core into the hole (Adult jokes!) and made their way to the gates.

_Sanctuary. Built on the ruins of the Dahl corporation's finest interplanetary mining ship. Now the refuge for thieves, murderers and outcasts. Welcome home._

"Cool, look at all the buildings!" Gaige exclaimed, acting as though she had never seen a city before. Axton took a quick glance around the place. It was falling apart, though whilst on the run from a sarcastic, rich asshole who just so happens to own an entire company and battleship, it probably seemed like a nice place to stay. Salvador had run off to Moxxi's- One of the places he'd always wanted to go to. To him, gambling, drinking and flirting was the perfect way to rest after having gone on numerous raids. Axton was slightly more logical. He wanted to find something more productive before starting his drunken party.

"We should look around/ Find something-" Zero paused midway when he noticed Maya's sudden disappearance. Where had she gone? It appeared she was not the only one with the strange ability to disappear when everyone least expected it. Sighing, he entered Decepti0n, leaving behind a hologram to entertain Axton and Gaige whilst he searched for her. He knew she would be alright, but still, he followed. Well, it was a good thing he left too. Seconds later, Axton and Gaige would be annoyed.

"Minions! There you are!"

Maya stumbled uneasily around Sanctuary- its streets full of people even at night. Perhaps they never slept. That wasn' t the point. She had hijacked a ship and spent a week on it to get to Pandora. She had survived a train-explosion thing, killed numerous bandits and monsters whilst dealing with her idiotic, frustrating co-workers. Now, she was going to get what she came for. She was going to get answers- to everything. Everything she had been taught, everything down to her existence, all from Tannis. Somewhere in one of the many buildings of Sanctuary, would be the woman she had been hoping for since she was a toddler- one able to help her understand her siren lineage.

She found herself outside a building which stood out from the others. It seemed to resemble a clinic of some sort, but hey, if one was searching for a genius, he or she would probably be a doctor. Stereotypical, yet somewhat logical. Sadly, Maya was illiterate for that short period of time and failed to read the sign which so clearly stated Zed. So when she entered, she found herself wondering if Patricia was a girl's or a boy's name.

Meanwhile, Gaige was having much more fun. She was aiming for the gun shop. More specifically, she had intentions of robbing the store, both of its guns and loot. Though once she entered to witness the shopkeeper, who just so happened to be the owner of all the vending machines she'd encountered, shoot someone who demanded a refund. Probably not a good idea to rob from this store. SO she left immediately and headed to another building.

Somehow, she managed to break into the mechanic's workshop. She regretted it five minutes later.

"Oh, crap, is you Hyperion? I heard all of you are robots and you eat metal out of the garbage and stuff. Knew you wired death-machines would be coming for me once Roland went missing. Now, if you're here to kill me, you should probably know..." The mechanic started. Gaige wanted to stop his pointless illogical rambling in his thick accent, but perhaps she should see where he was going with it. Also, only then she remembered they had to rescue Roland.

"You'll never take me alive you robotic sumbitch!" Yep, she probably shouldn't have given him the chance to say anything. The next thing she knew, he was lunging at her with a wrench in hand.

"Get back 'ere ya stupid robot! Lemme' beat you up a lil'!" He started screaming. He must have thought she was a robot at the sight of her arm or something… Immediately, Gaige paused, holding up her arms in submission.

"I'm not a freakin' Hyperion loader! Just a girl with a robot arm!" She defended herself, and whatever money she would have to lose once she respawned. He analyzed her for a bit, and fortunately dropped the wrench.

"Wait a minute... well, hang me upside-down from a telephone pole cover me in honey and leave me to a slow death at the hands of hungry spider ants, you ain't no robot! You're a Vault Hunter! That's like a unicorn!" At this, Gaige stared at him confusedly.

"Y'built that arm on your own? Kinda cool!" Scooter complimented, and at this, Gaige went back to her normal personality.

"I know right? I mean I just cut off my own arm and built another one with my left hand!"

"Damn, you must've skills to do that!"

"You're damn right I do! Look, I can even summon my own robot!"

So from then on, Gaige and Scooter became best friends.

"So this thing gives us guns and money if we win?" Axton confirmed with the bartender.

"Sure does, sugar," Moxxi responded, batting her lashes as she always did. Though Salvador knew not to think of her as some sex toy. She'd once sliced a man's throat open with her heels.

"I gotta fucking try this," Axton said to himself, and so the world's biggest waste of money ensued.

So whilst Gaige was having a chat about her all-time favourite subject, and whilst Axton and Salvador were drinking, Maya was stuck "surgically" removing Eridium from someone's anus. When instructed to remove it, she simply gave him a punch, and the Eridium flew out of his mouth. Sadly, he was dead and was unable to relish the feeling of getting the purple glowing thing out of his digestive system. Zed was pleased anyway.

Maya found this was worth her time when he asked her to bring the eridium block to Tannnis, and even pointed her in the right direction. Two psychos with one bullet, as the Pandoran phrase went. Off Maya went, for her future, and her past. Well that sounded dramatic, so let's watch her run frantically towards the command centre, snatch the key from the guard, and slam the door open.

There stood the woman she'd been searching for since the start.

**Fast updates, cause exams over, but I did crap. Freakin' Physics. Singapore's education is similar to that of Britain's so if you're English, I'm in secondary school, integrated programme. Sucks, but it's worth it in the end. **

**Also if there's one person you should thank besides me for the early release of this chapter, it would be sir Elemental Hybrid, who actually motivated me by calling this a masterpiece, thus making me a little more optimistic about the success of this fanfic. Also, go check his story out if you haven't. Fav it, follow it, whatever. **


	10. Emotions and shit Shipper paradise

**A/n: Okay before we begin- Warning. This is an extremely short chapter because I have strong intentions of leaving you with a cliffhanger and thus leaving you infuriated with me and this story. 100% honest here. It'll be boring if it just blindly follows the main questline, doesn't it? So I'm skipping a few missions after this chapter, namely Roland's amazing rescue, and finding Lilith. So we'll go straight to something ELSE in the next chapter, before we go on to… TINY TINA! YAYAYAY. So my headcanon for Zero is coming up. I view Zero as that grey-skinned dude with black hair as seen on one fanart pic which I lost somehow. If you have it, please post in the reviews section. So Zero is NOT an alien, okay? I don't hate that theory, it's just that in order for things to go well in this story, I need this to happen. If you only ship alien Zero and Maya, I'm sorry. Maybe I'll write something else to suit your needs next time, alright? Thanks dudes.**

Zero watched as Maya slammed the door to The Crimson Raiders HQ. There was only one reason why she would be so enthusiastic to enter the building. She had found it- the answer to her problems, what she came for when she arrived on pandora. He was happy for her... partially. He could sense something was amiss. She came for knowledge about her siren lineage- which she found. Her secondary mission was the vault, and to rid Pandora of Hyperion forces. Yet he knew the moment she accomplished her primary goal, she would rethink her goals, and there was a high chance she would not continue once she got her questions answered. He still had the other three vault hunters, so why did this bother him?

This was not right. He was not being himself. He was an assassin, wanted across multiple planets- Pandora included. He had a bounty of over a billion dollars, but so did she. She had an even greater bounty, in fact. He mentally slapped himself.

_Don't think about her. She is now a distraction. You start to falter._

Perhaps he should see what axton and Salvador were up to.

Zero had a drink with the other two vault hunters. He figured a strong drink would help get his mind off the issue. It didn't do much in the end. The more he drank the more he began to doubt his sanity. He thought years of inhumanely murdering assigned targets had left him without much emotion. Yet, here he was, disturbed by the potential loss of one of his allies. Taking a glance at Axton, he started to wonder- If Axton or Salvador were to be in Maya's position, leaving the team, would he feel the same? He found the answer to be no. This made him feel worst about himself.

With his experience, he had… become somewhat proficient with psychology and reading emotions. None of his targets had ever shown what he was going through. It called for further study. Or maybe not, given his reluctance.

"Hey guys…" Maya sighed. Zero was the only one who seemed to hear her voice, and he turned his head slightly, so he could faintly see her silhouette by the entrance to Moxxi's. Something was amiss. She had definitely spoken to the insane scientist, yet she behaved as though she had gotten nothing out of the talk. Zero was right, apparently.

Maya took a seat next to Zero, who was somewhat nervous given the proximity. Maya fiddled with her thumbs before finally speaking. "Tannis… S-She didn't exactly help…" Zero displayed a question mark, demanding for a deeper elaboration as to what she meant. "I came to Pandora to seek a purpose in life as a siren. I thought maybe we were destined to do something here. It seems I was wrong…"

Zero nodded slowly, taking another gulp of the rakk-ale. She was not in a good mood. Neither was he, so it was probably not a good time to mention she was why he wasn't in a good mood.

"So… Zero?" Maya began. Zero watched her carefully, and he felt his heart beat accelerate a little. A LITTLE. He wanted emphasis on that.

"I guess I should probably ask… Where did you come from?" She asked. She had never taken the chance to understand him. Mainly it was pointless bickering.

"I came from Eden after finishing a contract," Zero replied, dropping the haiku, though he continued in his monotonous tone. If they were getting to know each other- _**not romantically, **_It would be best to not make things confusing with haikus.

"I meant where you were born," Maya corrected herself, a genuine smile forming on her face.

"Athens," He finally managed to say, the thought of it not bringing back much memories. Most of his childhood memories were wiped out after… The incident. Maya nearly choked on her drink.

"Athens."

"Yes."

"You came from freakin' Athens? That's where I was born!" Maya looked ecstatic. Then she realised he probably wasn't. The damn cult had made every citizen of every age fear them, and she was their weapon. Zero, as a child, by right should have feared her.

Time passed, and as it grew later, Maya grew more sympathetic towards Zero. She had never taken the time to understand him, and she was glad she did. He was telling her about a contract, but then she cut him off.

"I need to go," She sighed, her voice cracking at the last word. He was left speechless. Why? He was right.

"Tannis was of no help. I'll still be on Pandora… I think. B-But I prefer to do this on my own. The vault was never my number 1 priority…" Zero remained silent, and didn't move a muscle.

"I'll… go now," Maya stood, the blue maliwan hanging at her side.

_I've lost it. I ACTUALLY have… feelings for this guy I've been working with for the past few weeks._

"Be safe," was all Zero managed to say, given all the emotional turmoil he was facing. Was it happiness, sadness or something he didn't want to consider? So what made him feel even worse, was how Maya wrapped her arms around him, the side of her face pressed against the side of his mask. Axton and Salvador stared uncertainly at the scenario that was unfolding. After a few seconds, Maya left without a word. Zero was left alone at his stool, completely confused and in a crisis.

He hated rakk ale so much right now. Though perhaps he hated himself more.

Maya shuddered as the fast travel whirred to life, and everything around her faded to an overpowering shade of blue. Sanctuary was gone. So was Axton, Salvador, Gaige… and Zero. Zero, whom she thought of as a bastard at first, and then made her utterly confused, like a teenager of sorts.

'Damn him' she thought to herself, as the corners of her mouth turned upwards slightly. When she reappeared in the desert where they had met, she found herself upset. Here she was, alone, remembering how she had watched him from this very spot as he took out the bandits that had planned to kill her.

Damn she missed him already, but she would not go back.

**A/n: You know school holidays, right? CRAP TON'A HOMEWORK. OH THE JOY. So I didn't exactly have the time to write something to make you shippers cry- which was what I tried my best to do. I DID make my classmates and my teacher cry once in an essay which involved the development of a mother's and son's relationship. In the end the mom got hit by a car and the son stabbed himself in the heart so yeah. But I ain't gonna let dat shit happen to our shippy group DON'T WORRY. **

**SPOILERS**

**Also, dear whoever it was that shouted NIPPLE SALADS in the reviews section… It's gon' be your lucky day.**


	11. That was fast

**A/n: How's it going guys? Remember that time I said my fanfiction (An assassin and a siren) got plagiarized? Yeah, I remember too. Okay maybe you don't, but I found the link to the place I found it , YAY! Sadly, I suck at tumblr, so if any of you just so happen to find the plagiarizer , please burn that bitch. Kay thanks bye. **

** post/38824889501/of-sirens-and-assassins-for-jesym ckinney**

**There were only two reviews, so easier for me! **

**Anonymous dude: Thanks for dat praise, and there will not be Maya/Krieg. Most likely a brother-sister thing going on. I DO ship that couple, but not as much as May0. Question 2 is answered in here, and as for question 3- I enjoy pissing people off. I read an AC3 fanfiction once it sucked. Cause of cliffhanger, and it got updated A MONTH later…**

With her solitude, Maya felt nothing but guilt, regret and fear. A month after her separation, she had the feeling that she had been labeled an outcast by the others. Maybe even Zero. The damn assassin who always had her acting strange. She figured some time away from them could rid of her feelings, but this only made her feel worst. Her dreams depicted she and Zero meeting coincidentally whilst he was still hunting Jack, but he had forgotten about her, and started slashing at her rashly. She would wake up in a mess, panting and frightened. She used to not fear the bandits of Pandora. Now that she was alone, they seemed even more frightening than usual- The rats especially.

Within the past month, she had been attempting to learn more about sirens. The firehawk, she had heard, was a bandit who did fearsome things to random dudes it encountered. The description of its powers seemed familiar to her- she even assumed it could be a siren. Though she probably did not want to wander into her/its lair, given the risks she would have to take. Sure, she had respawn, but she'd rather her body remain intact at death, rather than be turned inside out or something.

Her next lead was Angel. She could feel the woman was a siren. As mentioned up there, she had given up her honorable title of Vault Hunter and went on to become a rogue siren. She was an outcast, and Angel treated her as such. No guidance, no talking, not even a glimpse at her face. Even their guardian had left her behind. There were no more leads as to who she truly was, or where the other sirens were.

Sometimes she heard the bandits chatting amongst themselves. Roland was back! The vault hunters were pursuing Jack! Moxxi had balloon tits! The last one was clearly not a big deal, and she already knew that anyway. Part of her was glad her ex-allies were doing well, and were one step closer to murdering Jack, that son of a bitch CEO. Now, she found herself alone in the desert, as she adjusted her scarf. It was bright red, and she found it on the ground once. She had a long freakin' glove over her left arm, so as to not draw attention from bandits or those Jack had hired to assassinate her kind. A quick stop at Hammerlock's place had enabled her to switch the colour of her clothes to a dull shade of gray. Her hair, now in a one-sided ponytail, was coloured black. Perhaps some part of her wanted to forget her past. When she was born, her hair was red. Before leaving to Pandora, she dyed it blue, to show how she had put her life as a forced weapon of the cult behind her. Now, her black hair signified putting vault hunting aside.

It was time for her to leave Pandora. It offered nothing to her except fucked up feelings and guns. She had to find a train station- one which would take her back to the station she had come from. The desert grew warmer, and she was forced to stuff her scarf and glove into her haversack, so as to make the heat more bearable. She could faintly see the station ahead of her, and as she did, she found herself looking back at the time she had last seen a train. Before it suffered from an explosion. Zero was right by her, and even helped carry her into the damn train. Goddamnit she wasn't supposed to be thinking about him right now. She was on the platform, waiting for the train before she even knew it. She was supposed to be trying to forget about him! About everything! Thankfully, the sound of a train approaching snapped her out of her thoughts. Also, there was something else too. Or rather, someone.

"What the hell, is that a Psycho?"

"Zero! Shoot the bloody Goliath already!" Gaige screamed as she fired at the goliath's belly. Deathtrap was slashing at the obese crap violently, and his attacks were doing little. Zero snapped out of his trance, quickly firing at it. At its head. At its bloody head. What a noob. So that was how Zero found himself next, using decepti0n to distract the goliath while Gaige, Axton and Salvador began screaming and running as the goliath destroyed EVERYTHING around them. Even its brother Goliath II and its son Midget Goliath. Finally, the goliath fell dead on the floor.

"Nice job there, bitchez. Now get mah badonkadonks already, pretty please?" Tina chirped over ECHO, and the sound of an explosion could be heard faintly in the background. Mordecai was doing his job, slagging a psycho which was making its way towards the four of them. Fighting got a lot harder now that Maya was gone. Her disappearance also largely affected not just their gunfights, but their sniper's attitude. It was like a deathwish if they mentioned her name or even hinted at her absence in front of Zero. It became like a forbidden word. Zero would grow rash and heartless if one were to tell him anything about her, and that left the other three somewhat terrified of him.

He put his mind off the ally he had lost. One that he might even have developed feelings for. He had to blow up a train, and the ultimate goal was to murder the CEO of Hyperion. There would be no distractions.

_Hey, remember when we were sane?_

"**She can taste the bloody hatred!" **

_Guess not. Still can't hear me, can you? Little voice in your head trying to remind you of the time when we could go hours, days without screaming about our desire to ride bicycles made of meat?_

Sadly, the voice in his head was so focused on trying to bring back their sanity, that he forgot to mention the train which was about to smash them to bits. Thankfully, the hulking psycho dove out of its way right on time. He lay spitting out sand, which had somehow gotten into his mask. What was he even doing on the train tracks anyway? Was he intending to kill himself? Certainly not. He still had to find his meat bicycle.

Then he saw_ her. _A siren, standing on the train platform, wishing to board the train which had just arrived. She held a maliwan SMG. His friend was telling him something about a thousand sunsets, and then continued by telling him to INDEED scream poop at the top of his lungs. So he followed its instructions. Oh hey look, a train. That gave him inspiration.

"**I'm the conductor of the POOP TRAIN!" **He screamed. By that he meant hi and I like a thousand sunsets, but close enough, you know? Sadly his logic was actually not at all logical, so she fired at him. The little voice kept talking to him, but with someone firing a gun at him, it didn't seem quite important. He dove for cover behind a bunch of rocks, and she kept firing. Then he heard a familiar noise. Rats. SHIT, RATS? He stole a glance at her. Just as he had assumed, he saw rats about to strike.

_Tell her to turn around!_

So he gave her a rough translation of what the voice had said.

"**STRIP THE FLESH!" **Not at all helpful. Might as well give her a simpler version.

"**SALT THE WOUND!"** She kept firing. Was she deaf or something?

_She's going to die and it's going to be your fault!_

The voice had meaning, for once. He didn't want the pretty lady to die. She looked nice. **"TURN AROUND PRETTY LADY!"** He screamed, hurling the buzz saw at the psycho approaching her. She turned in shock, frozen after getting over the shock of almost getting killed. She had at first, assumed he had thrown the buzz axe with the intention af cutting her head in two. Apparently, he had saved her. Weren't all psychos supposed to be deadly, insane and murderous? Okay she shouldn't stereotype others.

The psycho leapt onto the dead rat's shoulders, pulling his axe out of his head. Then began the slaughter of rats. The psycho began jumping around, slicing at the approaching rats mercilessly. Maya just stared and watched, considering if the man was a friend or a foe. Since he had in fact, saved her from a hook to the back of her head, she assumed he was a friendly. The psycho seemed to think he was done with the rats, but he failed to notice one of them trying to jump on him. He turned at the last possible second, and Maya quickly phase-locked the rat.

The psycho turned to stare at her for a moment, and she took that as a thanks. He returned his gaze to the rat who was currently screaming his balls off. Then he brutally cut it in two. Maya flinched at the psycho's next scream, which was something about a slaughter… and powdering something…

"Thanks for your help back there. I'm Maya," She introduced herself. Normally, she would have extended her hand in friendship, but it probably wasn't a good idea.

"Krieg! Stripping the flesh and salting wounds!" He bellowed and Maya could only assume 'Krieg' was his name.

"Nice hobby you got there. Anyway, are you here for the um… Train?" Maya asked him nervously, afraid that if she said something wrong, she would get her flesh stripped.

"ALL ABOARD THE POOP TRAIN!" Krieg cheered, jumping onto the back of the train. Maya wondered why he didn't take the front door at first, but after a quick glance into the train window, she could see why. Inside, was the largest damn loader she had ever seen. So she decided to get on the back of the train with Krieg. At least she wasn't alone now, despite the fact that her travelling partner was bat-shit insane.

"Hurry yo asses the train gon' be here soon!" Tina exclaimed, making the vault hunters probably more frustrated than they already were, given the fact that they were dueling with this large-ass goliath with a big fucking box on its damn back.

"Give me the bombs first/ I shall prepare them for you/ Lest we are too late," Zero told Salvador, who had the bombs under his arm, whilst his other arm wielded a Vladof machine gun. With his right arm struggling to hold the bombs, he was completely incapable of gunzerking- a major disadvantage in battling this large SOB. Salvador dropped the bombs onto the snow, letting out a sigh of relief- glad to be free to unleash more bullets. He pulled out a Dahl shotgun and fired away, whilst Zero had his Decepti0n clone jumping around randomly, as though he was trying to find a spot to take out the goliath. Meanwhile, the true Zero had grabbed the 'badonkadonks' and started sprinting towards the spot where Tina had marked on their minimap.

He set the bombs down, and within five minutes, the others arrived, helping to secure the bombs on the ramp. In the distance, he could faintly hear the sounds of the train.

"Oh snap, son! I think I hear the TRAIIIN coming!" Tina squealed, and the vault hunters were left to anticipate the train. They knew better than to think of her as a girly thirteen year old… After witnessing her blow up the psycho.

"Counting down! 1o, 9!" Sadly, Tina forgot and pressed the detonator right there.

"I got bored," She simply added, as the bombs rained down on the train, which blew up right before their eyes. Salvador seemed to be staring at it in wonder, and Gaige swore she could see tears of joy glistening in his eyes. Axton and Zero stood by idly, hoping one of the train cabins wouldn't crush them.

_Climb the pipe- to the train, or you'll go insane WUB WUB._

The four stalked through the smoke from the train, making seeing rather hard. Twice, they had almost been blown up by an EXP loader which had showed up behind them going like, "SURPRISE MOTHAF*CKA'S!" Censorship there because I say so.

"Amigos, d'ya see something dark over there?" Salvador pointed out. Well, technically, everything WAS dark, since it was night and there was smoke everywhere, but they could see something silhouetted in the distance, prominently darker than the blackened snow around them. Two unconscious shapes. Zero and Axton walked up to the shadows with their guns ready. Zero could see the figure of a woman, though her head was masked by a red cloth. Axton on the other hand, found her partner half nude and had his face covered by a psycho mask.

Just then, the woman let out a groan, and Zero pressed the pistol to the back of her head, tugging the red cloth off. Her dark black hair was alien to Zero, for he had never seen anyone with that shade of hair before. Her clothes, too, were dull and bore no resemblance to anyone he knew, but as she used her tattoed arm to lift herself from the snow, the moon seemed to light up her face (Or not, since the moon does not give off light, but rather reflects it from the sun, so we should say THE SUN INDIRECTLY LIT UP HER FACE). All Zero could do was stare as her eyes widened in surprise.

"Zero?"

**a/N: I WANTED THERE TO BE MORE CHAPTERS ON MAYA'S SOLITUDE BUT FUCK IT I'M LAZY. ANYWAY YOU CAME FOR MAY0, SO SHORT SOLITUDE. **

**IN THE REVIEWS SECTION YOU BETTER TELL ME BY WHICH CHAPTER YOU WANT FULL MAY0 AS IN A CONFESSION OF SORTS.**

CAPS CAUSE CAPS.


	12. Athens and Robots

_**A/N: Before the events that UNFOLD after the great cliffhanger are revealed to you, let's have a flashback, shall we? Also, no I was not aware of the Maya and Lilith mother-daughter rumor. Anyway, I have no intentions of implementing that into the storyline, sorry to disappoint if you were hoping for it. Also I don't think I will be shipping Krieg with anyone, maybe I might implement a slight love triangle, since the only one he seems to have chemistry with is Maya, and she's already being shipped with Zer0 in this story. If you can think of any straight ships which does not include Tannis, Tina, Gaige or Lilith, then by all means please share and I might consider using your idea. **_

_**Also I estimate another 11-15 chapters including this one. The sequel shall be posted maybe a month after its completion. **_

_**Question for the sequel. If Krieg were to accidentally end up on another planet, which should it be? (DO not include Pandora, Eden-5, Eden-6, Whichever Axton's ex is on, Athens or Hephaestus) **_

**Stalker: I know who you are. GET DAFUQ OUT. You fail at stealing review 69.**

**Guest (Reviewer number 67): Okay so I might have other plans for May0, as in the FULL May0 will come pretty late, since I'm leaving room for full May0 in the sequel. As for Zer0's portrayal, I prefer seeing him as a badass who has a good sense of humour, AKA the guy who goes FML when shit happens, as seen in game. I can't exactly take him seriously with him acting that way. DAMN YOU ZER0. But thanks for the suggestion, I will consider showing more cold assassin-ness behavior, maybe even in this chapter.**

_**This chapter is more of a plot development rather than a relationship development. What happens here has great impact on the story. SO NO FUCKIN' SKIMMING WE CLEAR.**_

**Right, now for the story. **

_The boy was aware it was past the assigned curfew, though to be honest, he didn't give a shit. He glanced over at the moon, which was partially obscured by the leaves of the tree nearby. He could still pick out the white surface of the moon through the leaves. He told himself to cherish this moment while it lasted. He might not see it again. _

_It was a dare, though perhaps a little more drastic than others he had completed before. Completing it meant the respect and admiration of his peers. Failing meant humiliation or death even. Still, he had a reputation to uphold. He wasn't going to let anything deter him- not the threats thrown his way by the cult or the degrading glares and smirks his friends shot him. _

_The task- to infiltrate the living quarters of the cult, and to bring something back as evidence of this illegal act, which was not to mention punishable by death. He had handled other near death situations before, but he had no pressure whilst completing those tasks. Would that change his performance in anyway? Cause him to falter somehow? These negative thoughts struck fear into his heart- a distraction, not wanted. If there was one thing he hated it was fear or uncertainty distracting him from his goals. He had to push aside these thoughts as he was already in the building, exposed and vulnerable, standing in the middle of a wide, dark corridor. He hadn't brought his homemade blade, for he did not intend to kill any of the cult's members. _

_He drew in a deep, uncertain breath, using a clammy hand to pull back his fringe, also helping to smoothen his dark, spiky hair. With no hair obscuring his vision, he was ready- Physically, not mentally. He placed both palms against the cool, metal floor of the corridor, using it to bring himself to his feet. He glanced up to see the vent which he had entered from. The grills now hung loosely, threatening to fall any second now. He was incapable of reaching it, thus unable to adjust it. Come morning, they would find out he had intruded their quarters. For now, he would have to be quick, and grab something before the vent cover could fall, thus alerting them of his presence._

Before he could think of a route to take, the cover came crashing down. All possible plans escaped his mind, the only thing he was capable of doing was to roll out of harm's way. He chewed on his bottom lip, holding back multiple profanities as the cover made a distinct, loud CLANG as it hit the ground. He could already hear it in the distance- the cult stirring from their sleep, rising from their beds which creaked once their asses had left the mattress. 

"_Oh shit," The boy muttered, as he heard one of the cult's members shout. "Maya, my child, was that you?" _

_Maya- no doubt the girl they had used as a threat against anyone who dared disobey them. Someone he had grown to hate. Instinctively, he ran through the corridor at a surprising speed, given how unnaturally long his legs were. Within seconds, he had covered more distance than he had expected. He found himself aiming for the door painted a prominent, striking shade of red at the end of the corridor. He threw the door open, slamming it shit before the brothers could enter the corridor. He let himself breathe once more, panting as he leaned against the door. When he tilted his head upwards, he found a pair of striking blue eyes staring into his._

Zer0 could only stare as his stomach twisted itself into knots. Not literally. Fuck, that would really hurt, come to think of it. He had not expected their reunion to be so soon. Honestly, he hadn't expected to see her ever again. Still, one thing confused him. No, it wasn't the hulking half-naked psycho that was lying unconscious by her side. Her hair which had once been a rich, vibrant shade of blue was now dark and gloomy. Her attire which used to be Hyperion-ish yellow complemented her hair, now a dark shade of grey. Her eyes remained the same, bright and blue. They reminded him of something, though he couldn't exactly tell what it was. Maybe it was from his past? Maybe her eyes reminded him of his siblings' or his mother's? Then again, he couldn't remember how his parents looked like.

He slowly brought the pistol away from her, returning it to its holster. He took a step back, giving Maya the space to lift herself from the snow, which had now been burnt black due to the explosion. Once she got onto her knees, she fell right back onto the ground, gritting her teeth together. The moment she tried to get up, she felt a searing pain through her knee. She was no expert in medicine, but she could tell something was wrong with her knee. Perhaps she had twisted it due to the impact.

"I can't get up, something's up with my knee," Maya sighed, throwing her arms up in exasperation. She looked down to the ground feeling hopeless.

"Just give me your hand/ I will help to carry you/ It will be alright." Zer0 offered, though he had to admit he was surprised he managed to think up a haiku that fast. Immediately, Maya seemed to shift back uneasily, eyes all panicky like.

"Woah-woah, don't! T-Thanks and all for that generous offer, but I don't want to… You know, hamper your progress with me weighing you down all the time. I mean, I'm sure Krieg won't mind carrying me," Maya spoke quickly. Zer0, being the badass he was managed to clearly hear every syllable that left her mouth. Salvador on the other hand was half drunk, only managing to hear the name 'Krieg'.

"Who is this Krieg, senorita?" He slurred, though Maya could still understand it was a question.

"The guy passed out on the ground, we uh… Met after he saved me from some rats," She explained. Immediately after she said that, Krieg shot up. "THEY RUINED MY MEAT BICYCLE! OFF TO FEAST ON THEIR SOULS!" Turns out, he was in the perfect mood to go kill some Hyperion robots.

Axton and Gaige glanced at each other uncertainly, then back at Krieg, then back to each other again. Gaige snapped out of her panic sooner than Axton did, tried her best not to laugh, then gestured to Axton to show that Krieg was batshit insane. So Axton and Gaige were amused by his speech. Salvador wasn't angry, wasn't intimidated or wasn't upset. He was on cloud nine.

"Amigo, we are going to be best friends!" He exclaimed, trying his best to wrap an arm around Krieg's shoulder. Sadly, he was a midget, and was therefore incapable of reaching Krieg's shoulders. The most he could do was give the psycho a friendly pat on the back. Was that jealousy Zer0 felt when Maya wanted Krieg to carry her? Pssh. Course not, he was an emotionless, ruthless assassin. Or at least… That was what he wanted to be at the moment.

Krieg's inner voice was apparently conscious while Krieg was out cold, so he was able to somehow convince Krieg to carry Maya without breaking her limbs. So off the vault hunters went, ready to kill dem' robots.

**869 seconds later**

"KILLITKILLITKILLITKILLITKILLITKILLITKILLITKILLIT! " Gaige screamed as she ran from the exploding loader, out of ammo and not done recharging Deathtrap. The robot was hell-bent on blowing her to bits, missing out on the obvious point that she would come back to life anyway. Fortunately, so were the other loaders, programmed to be surprisingly stupid. Much like everything else they had had the pleasure of killing.

Zer0 took it out with one critical hit using his sniping rifle, and Gaige screamed her thanks over ECHO, picking up whatever loot the robot had dropped. She then retreated to a spot behind a boulder where Axton was hiding. "Robots suck," She whispered. "Agreed," Axton nodded, throwing her some shotgun ammo which she accepted without any hesitation whatsoever.

(See this here is the thing Borderlands 2 lacks. SHARING. And I don't mean Gaige's Sharing is Caring ability. By that I mean sharing ammo. Cause I'm sure no one shares cash with strangers. Except that one time this guy I was playing with gave me 5000 bucks via trading. He was nice. Back to the point. GEARBOX please please please add the feature of giving ammo with like the press of a button. Like when your cursor is on another player out of ammo there's like 'Press triangle/whatever button for whatever console to give ammo'. Thanks pumpkin'.)

Gaige shot out from behind the rock, ready with a few stacks of Anarchy and an upgraded, prepared Deathtrap. "COME AT ME BITCHEZ!" She screamed out of bloodlust, an effect of the Anarchy. Krieg on the other hand, had Maya propped up against a rock, whilst he borrowed one of her rifles to fire at the incoming robots. When one got to close, he would slice them into half with his buzz saw.

Salvador was out in the open, completely, not at all scared of dying, gunzerking and screaming some shit in Spanish which is highly inappropriate despite the number of F-words I throw in randomly from time to time.

So repeating this pattern, they had slaughtered everything, and Angel urged them to carry on, for the vault key was near. Maya was apparently, not aware the train carried the vault key, but she had warned them of the giant loader she had seen. However, they told her they had expected something to be guarding it anyway, so no big deal.

What confused them more was how Angel would constantly assure them that a Wilhelm was not on board, and also enjoyed reminding them how fortunate they were. They assumed it was a good thing.

After looting a bunch of shields, they saw the DESTINED TRAIN CABIN come into sight, half submerged in the water. "Vault key, here we come!" Gaige exclaimed, and she and Axton spontaneously ran up to it in glee. They did not notice how it was bobbing up and down in the water unnaturally.

_Oh no…_

Then a big-ass loader appeared. Gaige and Axton realized they were screwed and immediately ran away.

_It's Wilhelm!_

Zer0 found this confusing. Hadn't she said Wilhelm was _not _on board? She had hacked into Hyperion machinery countless times, and yet she could not tell a gigantic robot was on the train they had just blown up? This was mildly suspicious. Though considering the fact that they were about to be crushed by a giant loader, it was probably not the best time to be processing information in his head. What mattered now was killing the robot.

Axton and Gaige digistructed their turret and killing machine respectively, both making use of the shield that came with Axton's turret to fire at the robot. Gaige pulled out a corrosive firearm, certain that it would be more effective than the Torgue gun she was previously using. All the vault hunters seemed to be trying to gain an advantage element-wise, making use of whatever corrosive firearm they had. Zero lacked a corrosive sniping rifle of some kind, instead making use of a shotgun he had acquired somewhere. Though somewhat inexperienced with a shotgun, he managed to handle it well enough. Salvador began gunzerking two rocket launchers, one a Torgue, and the other a Maliwan corrosive one.

Wilhelm seemed to be at a disadvantage, but unfortunately, was programmed with a slightly better AI, thus knowing what needed to be done. He took a few (rather large) steps back, smashing a train cabin to release a bunch of loaders. Krieg, at the sight of them, paused his shooting, running for cover as the loaders were douches and targeted him alone. As Roland and Angel shouted at them about their chances of beating the giant goddamn robot, Maya noticed how Krieg seemed to falter.

"Just put me down somewhere safe, Krieg, I can manage," She weakly spoke. Krieg seemed too occupied with the loaders to say anything about meat bicycles or spines, setting her down behind a rather large piece of train. The vault hunters were beginning to falter as well, finding it increasingly difficult to dodge Wilhelm's attacks and the loaders' bullets at the same time. Maya didn't have much trouble, only having to tilt her body to the side a little to dodge the occasional bullet or rocket fired her way. When the loaders were dispatched, she found it was safe to observe.

A repair surveyor bot had flown into the battleground, trying its best to heal Wilhelm. Zero was finding it especially hard to shoot it, with its erratic movements. All of them seemed to be occupied with shooting the repair surveyor to notice Wilhelm approaching them ominously. Within seconds, he had gained the upper hand, with four of them bleeding out and Axton frantically trying to shoot Wilhelm, who was constantly approaching him. The others were trying their best to utilize whatever time they had left before going into respawn, firing at him. Salvador began to wish he had chosen the GUNZERK WHILE DYING upgrade instead of that other thing.

They needed Maya's help- that was quite clear. Maya watched as Axton dodged Wilhelm's kicks and whatnots, not getting the chance to shoot much. If she could just phaselock the damn robot that would be great. Weakly, she raised her arm to summon her magic power-y stuff, but failed. Wilhelm was far too strong for her to trap. She couldn't stop now though, Pandora depended on this. She tried again, using up every bit of strength in her, but each attempt failed. She slumped against the smooth Hyperion metal, panting and feeling rather useless. Then the faint noise of rocks falling brought her back to reality. She looked to her side to see the purple substance known as Eridium falling out of her pouch due to a tear.

"Ah what the hell, fuck it," She smiled to herself, placing the Eridium in her palm, doing whatever she could, and somehow, she did it. In a few seconds, she was enveloped in purple light, overpowering her senses. Zero hastily turned in her direction. Oh shit, what was she up to? Why was he concerned anyway? ALL THESE QUESTIONS.

When the light cleared, she was feeling noticeably more energetic and powerful. SO that's what Lilith felt like. She turned, somehow giving the fucker an evil grin, before successfully phase locking it. _(Gearbox I want to do this.) _The vault hunters were momentarily stunned, though quickly snapped out of it and resumed shooting at Wilhelm. Axton laughed out of sincere happiness, caught his breath and brought out his turret.

You know what using Eridium is like? Having super strength. Not just that. It makes you FUCKIN' high. One moment Maya was in full control of her actions, supporting her team, the next, she clenched her fist tightly. Everyone literally ran for their dear lives. Wilhelm exploded. The sight of Wilhelm's robot parts flying across the sky as the sun set majestically was the last thing Maya saw before passing out due to fatigue.

_He expected her to scream, or at least show some form of surprise. Instead, she circled him, as though she was scientifically observing him. When she was finished, she left him standing there awkwardly as she thought. _

"_Hey why's your skin so grey?" She asked, though not too loudly. His mouth opened to offer an explanation. Though perhaps he was going to retaliate by insulting her skin, since he didn't know where he'd inherited his pale grey skin from. _

"_How are your eyes like… red?" She asked yet another question, not giving him a chance to say anything. Frustrated and annoyed, he let out an exasperated sigh. _

"_Did you throw something at the vent?" Came the cult member's question from the hallway. She stopped asking those ridiculous, pointless questions immediately, much to his delight, and seemed genuinely scared now. _

"_Oh crap, he's up? HURRY, hide somewhere!" She whispered, trying to shove him into a corner. _

"_Just open the window and let me out! I'll escape that wa-" He tried to tell her what to do, but the next thing he saw was the girl's arm glow a pale shade of blue, her eyes showing authority. Probably not the best time for him to say anything. Immediately, he threw open the door to her closet, shutting it at the last possible second. Normally, he'd have thought getting into a girl's closet was something to brag about to his friends. Now it didn't seem to be quite a good thing to share. For now, he'd take advantage of the situation. He threw a few robes aside, searching for anything which wouldn't arouse suspicion from his friends. Nothing which would show he had delved into the depths of a girl's closet. Then he saw it- a weird box-ish object covered by a certain clothing article. (Underwear) He grabbed it quickly, analyzing it. He didn't know what it was but it certainly wasn't something the girl would wear. Didn't look like a belt or some kind of jewelry. For now, it'd have to do. One problem solved. Now he only had to worry about the girl and the cult._

**A/N: MAYA PASSES OUT A LOT, OKAY. My first attempt at writing seriously and descriptively (Flashback), so tell me what you think. I've been reading good fics lately. Apart from that Pokemon one. It has shit grammar. Also, 3000 WORDS! HELL YES I DID IT. Tell me if I wrote too much or if you want to see longer chapters. MAYBE ONE DAY WE SHALL REACH 5000 WORDS. Or maybe not. Also, OC one-shot coming up soon. I recommend you read it, since my OC will be showing up in the sequel with a major role. Also, read it because I'm greedy and I want your praise. *EVIL GRIN* *Portal 2 Glados potato laughter***


	13. SANCTUARY'S BURNING AH

_**A/n: Holy shit, guys. I'm sorry for the delay. What have I been up to? I've been studying, playing Pokemon Diamond and starting a Gaming blog. Recently, I've been working on an animation, which I hope to complete soon. Here's a secret which won't be one anymore- I want a part time job as a Machinima Director, and I hope to achieve this in three years. **_

_**Here's my gamer blog- **_

_**Read the shit I post. GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO.**_

"_I'm terribly sorry, I heard a noise outside and I decided to see what it was… And the-and then I saw a-a large bug and I decided to throw a rock at it…" The girl, whom he assumed was called Maya apologized, though the boy could tell it was definitely a lie. _

"_It's alright, my child. You've learnt your lesson and that's all I ask of you. Though you should refrain from going out into the corridors at night, it is dangerous for a goddess. Some might seek to control your powers and use them against us," He ordered, albeit somewhat patiently. _

"_Good night, brother Sophis," She politely bowed, as the man took his leave, shutting the door behind him. The girl, loosened up immediately, retiring from her previously straight, mature posture. She let out a sigh, as though she disliked having to be this polite all the time. He didn't blame her. He would probably go insane if he had to undergo such training._

_Quietly, he gave the door to the closet a quick shove, and it opened gradually. He slowly made his way out, before being shoved onto his knees roughly._

"_You. Get your hands on your stupid head," She whispered threateningly. He turned to face her, and almost fainted at the sight. She had a pistol, which was cocked to the side, pointed at his forehead. He did as she asked without hesitation._

"_You came here to capture me, didn't you?" She snapped, walking over to his front to meet his eyes. _

'_What kind of girl keeps a gun in her bedroom?' He thought to himself. _

"_What are you talking about? Why would I want to capture you?" He asked, hoping for an answer rather than a bullet through his head. _

"_Stop lying, you clearly know that I'm the goddess the cult is raising!" She nearly shouted, before quickly lowering her volume._

Before he said anything, he chose to give her a sarcastic look, as though he was trying to say 'You just told me you were a goddess. Isn't that supposed to make me want to capture you now?'

"_I don't think anyone knows that," He sighed. _

"_Okay, fine. Just… Stay there," She groaned, leaving her bedroom, though she kept her bedroom door ajar. This was his chance. She was stupid enough to leave her hostage alone._

_He rose immediately, lifting the window pane. As though she was telepathic, she came running back into her room, gasping at the sight of him escaping. _

"_You left me alone, Gave me a chance to escape. Now, I have to go," He grinned, and with that, he disappeared._

When Maya woke, the first thing she heard was Gaige and Axton arguing over a grenade mod. It wasn't much of a surprise, since they were constantly bickering over loot. Salvador and Krieg could be heard faintly chuckling in the distance, likely watching them quarrel. As she had expected, the two had become best friends instantly. Not much of a surprise there either, seeing as both of them had an obsession with flesh, spines and loud talking.

What was strange was that her side was pressed against something warm, which was comforting, seeing as they were in the colder region of Pandora. Well, not as cold as the Fridge, (which they hoped they would never have to visit). She didn't have much time to wonder about the source of heat, as her head started throbbing, making her feel like puking. She raised a hand, using her thumb and index finger to rub her forehead.

"Have you awoken? Or are you still unconscious? Perhaps you are dead?" Came Zero's question. The moment she heard his voice, her headache seemed to fade- though not in the romantic way you might have expected. Her eyes shot open, to find herself staring into his visor. As though the shock of being carried by _him _wasn't enough, he displayed a heart on his mask. That alone was enough to make Maya fall out of his grasp in complete utter terror.

What made things worst was that she would never know what were his intentions. Beneath the mask he could be grinning mockingly, glad that his little prank had frightened her, or he could be genuinely concerned for her well-being. She assumed it was the former.

"Maya, something wrong with you?" Gaige asked, bouncing her newly acquired grenade mod in her metal hand. Behind her, she could notice how Axton was acting like a spoilt kid, pouting. For a commando, he was rather childish.

Maya shot a glare at Zero, before dusting off some of the snow on her pants. "I'm fine. No thanks to_ him,_ though," She snapped, and everyone could tell who she was referring to.

"Anyway, did we get the vault key?" Maya asked hopefully.

"Nope. Sucks, but hey, we got a core that's gonna keep Sanctuary safe for years!" Gaige exclaimed, pointing at the bulge in her haversack. She was slightly disappointed, but on the bright side, they could make plans in the Crimson Raiders HQ without worrying about Sanctuary being blown up.

"Good enough, I guess. Let's get back to Sanctuary," Axton the commando commanded, and they headed back.

Throughout the trip, Maya couldn't help but sense something amiss. Angel, the all-knowing AI who had the ability to hack into ANYTHING could not sense a giant robot, and a clear absence of the vault key on the train. She'd figure it out later. For now, she would have to remain content with the core. Mordecai would definitely find out where it was.

**Back at Sanctuary…**

"HEEEEEEEEEEY biatch how ya' doing?" Was the first thing Maya heard once she returned to Sanctuary.

"Ugh. What do you want, Tina?" Maya asked, clearly annoyed.

"Well, it's nothin' really. Just wanted to know when ya' gon' hook up with Mista' Ninja?"

"Tina. Stop."

"Naw, I ain't gon' stop gurl!"

"Just… No…"

"Aww, you need some advice? All you gotta do is BLOW UP A BUNCHA' CRAP! Then go over to him and be like 'WELL DAYUM YOU GOT SOME NICE ABS THERE, HOT STUFF!' and then give him a lil' pat on his booty and then-"

"TINA IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP I WILL TAKE ALL YOUR EXPLOSIVES AWAY!"

"Oh. Kay' bye buddy! Ima' go talk to yo boyfriend."

Maya stopped the call hastily, her face red (Both due to anger and embarrassment). When she looked up, all eyes were on her.

"You okay there, Senorita?" Salvador asked, a little bit concerned for her sanity.

"No. No I am not!" Maya spat out furiously, her voice raising with each word.

"So… Can we plug the new core in?" Axton confirmed with her. Apparently, she was so distracted with the call to notice that they were ready to replace the core.

"Yeah, carry on," Maya answered, significantly less angry, though they could still catch a little unhappiness in her answer.

With that, Krieg removed the old core. "IT SHALL SUFFER IN THE DEPTHS OF A FIERY HELL!" He shouted blindly, referring to the old core. Axton immediately shoved the core in.

"YEAH! Sanctuary is safe, YOU HYPERION BEE-YOTCHES!" Gaige screamed. Though she spoke a LITTLE too soon. The next thing they saw was Angel's face flashing on the screen above the core, and with a bright flash of light, the shield around sanctuary disintegrated.

"Uh… Guys? What's going on?" Gaige stammered.

"I don't kn- LOOK OUT!" Maya was cut off by a missile headed in their direction. Krieg, Axton and Salvador leapt off the platform immediately after Maya had noticed it. Gaige refused to move, staring at the missile as it approached them.

Instinctively, Maya wrapped her arms around Gaige, her back facing the missile. She clamped her eyes shut, bracing for the explosion. Out of nowhere, Zero appeared, grabbing them and throwing them off the platform.

They landed hard on the snow, though Zero had thrown them off in a way that his back would make contact with the ground, and they would remain unharmed. Gaige got up, dusting snow off her skirt and hair, but stopped when she heard Jack's voice over ECHO.

"You know what? I think it's time you knew my secret," He began. At that moment, Maya put two and two together, and predicted what he was going to say. Sadly, it was an extremely accurate prediction. "Angel's working for me."

"It was all a lie/ Angel deceived all of us/ How shameful this is," Zero said, still finding the time and mood to come up with a haiku.

"Not a good time for that now, Zero!" Axton yelled over the explosions in the background.

"Come on, let's get into Sanctuary!" Maya commanded, and they followed. Sanctuary's citizens were running around blindly, seeking shelter somewhere. One or two got killed by a missile, which had unfortunately landed right on them. Not that Hyperion was trying to be accurate of course, since they_ were _next to the moon, and unable to see who they were shooting at.

Only now, did Axton choose to bring out his mature side. "Maya, Zero, you guys take after the citizens. The rest of us will help Roland and Lilith out!" He ordered, dragging the others along with him. If they weren't surrounded by burning buildings and explosions, Maya might have found the time to protest. Now, she was determined to save Pandora, and chose to push those childish feelings aside for now.

"I still can't believe Angel would lie to us," Maya shouted over the screams of unfortunate citizens. All along, she had seen Angel as a guardian, someone they could actually trust while stuck on this hellhole of a planet.

"I can see that," Zero responded, with too much on his mind to think of something poetic to say. Out of nowhere, Maya smiled, "Thank you for stopping the haikus for now. Now I have to go, these citizens aren't going to save themselves."

Maya ran off somewhere, leaving Zero to tend to an injured man on the street. Maya's last sentence rang in his head. _Now I have to go. _It seemed familiar in a sense…

"Pick up all the Eridium, come on, come on!" Gaige screeched, throwing the eridium pieces into Axton's haversack, which was lying, open on the ground.

"I'm trying!" Axton shouted back, missing a couple of his throws.

"HURRY YOUR FLESH STICKS! THE RED LADY NEEDS HER FIX OF PURPLE DEATH!"

"Zero, where are you?" Maya screamed, pressing her palm against her bleeding cheek. She had sustained a long gash starting from the bottom of her cheek which ended above her eyebrow. An unfortunate accident with the ceiling of Daisy's home had caused it. "Here," She heard his voice behind her. She whipped her head around to face him. She noticed how he walked with a limp, and had a deep cut along his left arm.

"Goddamnit, Zero…" Maya sighed in relief, wrapping her arms around him. Zero wished his visor didn't show his emotions. A ':"' face showed up on his blank mask, though fortunately for him, Maya didn't see that.

"Come on, we gotta go find Li-" She was cut off by a blinding purple flash of light which surrounded her, and she watched as the broken Sanctuary disappeared. When the light had cleared, she found herself in a patch of grass. Next to her, was Zero, clearly stunned.

"Maya? Zer0? You guys okay?" Lilith asked them over ECHO.

"Yeah, why?" Maya coughed.

"Krieg, Sal, Axton and Gaige are fine. They're wondering where the hell you guys are! They're outside- I mean below Sanctuary."

"Wait… Below Sanctuary?"

"I used eridium to suspend Sanctuary in mid-ai-"

Before Lilith could finish her sentence, Maya and Zero found themselves being pinned to the ground by mauraders.

"Don't move, or my slabs'll rip your limbs off. You Hyperion bastards!" Came their attacker's voice.

When Zero looked up, he saw a large, muscled man towering above them.

**A/n: It's shorter than the previous chapters, sorry. NOW, I'm making modifications to the storyline, because I need to make the story shorter. Right now, just enjoy the cliffhanger.**

**Recommendations:**

**-Sango-Is-Alone's story 'The Icebringer'. Usually I detest OC stories, but HER STORY is brilliant.**

**-A New Vault Hunter by Elemental Hybrid. Another OC story. No May0, but it's a great read, and it makes you ship his OC and Gaige.**

**-Texted Heart by (Lazy to search for author name). Managed to craft an amazing shippy fic shorter than mine, but still better than mine.**

**THANKS FOR KEEPING UP WITH MY SHIT.**


	14. LOTS OF STUFF HAPPENS (Not my best)

**A/n: First things first, YOU GUYS GOT ME TO 20,000 VIEWS THANK YOU OUBEOUBVCae. Secondly, would you like me to post an OC story that would lead up to this story's sequel, or post it AFTER the sequel? YEAH anything's good. Thirdly, I prefer seeing Krieg easily accepting Maya and Zero's LOVE, instead of being all NO SHE'S MINE GO AWAY IOBQWOERF. Now, read the story… GO ON… Read it…**

_The boy, after having broken into a high-security building a week ago, and nearly being shot by a__girl who claimed she was a goddess thought his life had returned to normal. Everyone his age practically worshipped him, for having dared enter such a place. _

_He was getting some well-deserved sleep, when he heard his window being tapped. Half-asleep, he slowly got to his feet, his eye-lids still low and droopy. Looking out the window, he saw Spots, the neighbor's dog, scratching on his window, not looking quite calm. "What do you want… Now, Spots?" He asked, visibly tired, in-between yawns. Slowly, he pushed his window up._

_Spots opened his mouth, as though he was going to bark something that the boy wouldn't be able to understand anyway. Though before he could make any sort of noise, the boy watched as a bullet passed clean through the side of his head. "Shit," The boy whispered to himself. Before he could understand what was going on, someone leapt from the roof, and with her hands gripping the edge of the roof, swung down, her body crashing through the open window._

"_Aha! I knew you'd be here!" The girl exclaimed, pointing a gun at him. _

"_How did- H-how?" He stammered, leaning against the wall behind him. _

"_It was easy. With all the girls knocking on your door in the mornings and gossiping about you at other times of the day, I could tell it was you. Not everyone manages to __**steal **__something from my room, you know," She explained. "Alright, so now…" She trailed off, and catching him by surprise, phase locked him to the ceiling. _

"_Where's the shield?"_

"_What shield?"_

"_The one you stole!" _

"_I d-don't know where it is!"_

"_You better freakin' tell me where it is or I SWEAR I will tear your room apart and shoot you in the foot, so you can cut out all those fancy ninja jumps!" She screamed. The boy started feeling lucky that his parents were out._

"_Honestly, I DON'T KNOW!" _

"_Fine then, stay there. I'll look for it," She grinned. So the search began. The boy was forced to watch as she flipped chairs and tables over, throwing everything in his wardrobe out. Then finally, she stopped. Only for something worst to happen._

"_Ooh… What's this?" She asked him, pulling out a metal, black sheet. _

"_Don't touch that!" So she did. She raised it in front of her face, laughing a little. When that happened, the other side of the sheet displayed a LOL on it. _

"_Hey, this seems fun!" She exclaimed. _

"_GIVE IT BACK!"_

"_Nah, I think I'll break it…"_

"_Fine, the shield's in the box under my bed!"_

"_Well, thank you, Mademoiselle!" She grinned haughtily, dropping him from the ceiling. She kept a gun on him, as she went to check the bed._

"Maya? Zero?" Lilith called, hoping for a response. She could hear nothing but a faint buzzing noise. "Damnit," She hissed, turning to face the surviving Crimson Raiders. Their numbers were scarce, with most of their lives lost after Angel's betrayal. Roland was planning a memorial to remember those who died defending Sanctuary's citizens. He was going to make sure their deaths weren't for nothing. This time, Roland was determined not to lose. He was going to fight whatever Jack threw his way until it was all over.

"Whoa, what happened to them?" Gaige asked, concern showing on her face as she dashed into the HQ, having returned from conducting a headcount on the surviving citizens. She had counted twelve dead, thirty injured, and eighty four still alive and well. Salvador was helping to pile and bury (Throw off Sanctuary) the corpses. Axton was busy tending the wounded with Zed, seeing as he felt that Zed was terrorizing the citizens more than tending to their wounds. Krieg was sent to search for Maya and Zero while checking for Hyperion soldiers.

"Not sure. I was talking to them, and then the call got cut off," She sighed.

"They'll be fine," Axton strolled in, apparently having overhead the conversation between the two.

"You might be confident they'll make it, but I'm not willing to take that risk. Who knows, they might even be dangling over a pit of fire as we speak," Lilith reasoned. She wasn't sure if she could trust the rash psycho to save them. He had, after all, just arrived.

"Or maybe they're being forced to fight hundreds of bandits for entertainment!" Salvador exclaimed, bursting in. Everyone stared at him oddly.

"What, it was just a possibility!"

"Is this entertaining enough for you?" Maya shouted up at the man who sat atop his throne, the helmet still on his head. Maya pinned a midget down to the floor with her foot, shooting him in the head with her rifle.

"Nope. Keep fighting," He replied, leaning back further into the throne. Salvador's accuracy in guessing was unbelievable.

"Zero, get down here, I need some help!" Maya shouted up at Zero, who was sniping from a ledge. Without hesitation, he dropped down next to her, whipping out a Vladof rifle, the complete opposite of the Hyperion sniping rifle he used earlier.

"Badass, incoming!" He shouted over the sounds of gunfire and screams. Maya turned to the direction he was facing, to find a goliath wielding a giant minigun, spinning and ready to fire. Well, this was going to take a while. With that, they opened fire, watching as corrosive damage burned the bastard.

Zero, using Decepti0n, appeared behind the oblivious goliath, cutting his body into two. Within a few seconds, he returned to Maya's side.

"So, how you doing?" She asked, shooting a badass marauder in the head with a pistol. He kicked a psycho away, then firing at it with an SMG. "Fine," He replied. Slowly, the bandits stopped coming, and Maya finished off the last remaining marauder.

"It's time for wave seven!" Brick bellowed, and it started all over again. This was going to take a while.

"I WILL SAVE THE PRETTY LADY FROM THE TEARING OF FLESH THAT SEEKS TO DESTROY HER!" Krieg screamed, walking aimlessly along a path in the Fridge.

_Excellent plan, but you seem to have forgotten her accomplice? The assassin?_

"THE TOWER OF VANISHING MEAT DOES NOT HAVE ANY IMPORTANCE IN MY QUEST FOR BLOOD!"

Krieg's inner self sighed. He was right in wanting Krieg to woo the siren, Maya, but this infatuation had gone too far. If the other five were hanging above a pit of lava, and Krieg had all the time in the world to save them, he would probably grab Maya and bring her somewhere safe before pulling the lever that would lower the others to their death.

This infatuation was in fact, making Krieg more insane than he already was. He had to stop this, or this would become his weakness.

"Alright, look. YOU CAN'T KEEP US IN HERE FOR AN ETERNITY KILLING ALL YOUR BANDITS WHICH KEEP ON COMING!" Maya shouted up at Brick, who seemed to be smiling under his poorly made helmet.

"Maya, please calm down. We have to keep on fighti-…" A missile tearing through the ceiling cut Zero off. If they weren't being held captive as sources of entertainment, she would be terrified of a missile nearly killing her. Now, it just meant that this Hyperion attack would free them from imprisonment.

"Damn Hyperion bastards!" Brick shouted, grabbing the hammer above him. "Sarcastic slab! Fix that roof while I go kick some Hyperion ass!"

Sarcastic slab groaned. "Yes, certainly, o' great king. I shall fix this roof because I really really want to and most of my time is dedicated to fixing roofs."

Brick strode towards Maya and Zero. Maya had her SMG aimed at him, while Zero's hand hovered over the hilt of his blade.

"You there, if you help me with this invasion I'll let you leave our camp," Brick suggested, extending his hand towards them. Zero glanced at Maya, who seemed to like his offer. He shook Brick's (Massive) hands. "Deal."

"Hey, who are they attacking?" Axton asked, watching as rockets fired by the Hyperion base fell to Pandora's surface. Gaige, who had taken over the job of surveying Pandora through the use of science-y technological stuff, started typing furiously, searching for where the missiles were landing.

"Uh… All I know is that it's not at the Sanctuary hole or Mordecai's hideout. If they did attack him, he'd probably contact us over ECHO," She replied.

"Or, he's just drunk off his ass," Axton suggested. Gaige agreed to this, but after checking the Tundra Express, found that it remained untouched.

"Woah, wait wait wait! I found it. It's in… Thousand Cuts. Looks like they're attacking the bandit camp over there," She finally discovered.

"Looks like you're getting the hang of that device, Gaige. Well… Connor used to do that better, but he's dead now. Anyway, good job Gai- Wait what? Thousand Cuts?" Lilith nearly spat out her drink.

"Yeah, the bandit camp there."

"There's only one group of bandits over at Thousand Cuts… ROLAND! Brick's in trouble!"

So after much haste, Roland finally plucked up the courage to ECHO Brick. "Brick, is everything alright down there?"

"OH HEY ROLAND!" Roland nearly laughed with relief that Brick wasn't angry with him. "It's fine! I got myself some helpers!"

"Roland, is that you?" Maya shouted, and Roland heard her grunt as a bullet pierced her leg.

"Yeah, and why are you at Brick's place?"

"Lilith teleported us here unintentionally," She said, sighing in relief as she injected herself with some health that had fallen from a robot.

Roland took the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. While Maya and Zero were there, he could carry out a part of his plan which he had intended to do in the future. Since they were there, they had might as well get it done now.

"Now there's a problem- we still don't know where Jack's got the vault key stashed," Roland said glumly.

"I can help you with that," Their eyes widened upon hearing Angel's voice. She had hacked into everyone's ECHOs. Almost simultaneously, everyone groaned and stuttered muttering profanities under their breaths. The noise was interrupted when Roland rudely cut her apologies off. "You?! Damnit, we told you not to contact us again!"

"Will you please just hear me out-!" Surprisingly enough, they ended up listening to her.

"Guess we have no choice but to trust her now. Gaige, Axton, Salvador. You guys go over to Mordecai's. He's got the claptrap upgrades for you.

"Why do we have to trust her? She tricked us, nearly killing us in the process!" Gaige nearly screams, throwing her arms up in exasperation. She was the kind of person who would hold grudges, and considering she had been backstabbed by someone she thought she could actually trust, that made her want to choke the life out of Angel.

"There's nothing else we can do, soldier! After Jack's attack, there's nothing else we can do but depend on her! This is our only hope!" Roland shouted back in response to Gaige's reluctance.

Axton and Salvador watch stunned as Gaige's eyebrows arch inwards. She ground her teeth together, her nails digging into the palms of her hands.

"I'm not going," She growled, walking out of the HQ.

Axton turned to follow her, but was blocked by Lilith, who had extended her arm in front of him. "Leave her be. She'll have to calm down on her own," She sighed.

Axton bit his lip for a moment, before finally choosing to remain. He and Salvador headed off to the Wildlife Preserve, and Gaige watched from the roof of Zed's as they disintegrated, being teleported off to the Preserve.

Roland leaned into his chair, resting his head against his palm. Jack wasn't just trying to kill them. Jack wanted this to happen- create conflict between the Crimson Raiders. It looked like he was succeeding.

After a few more hours of sitting through Brick's shouting and tendency to steal their kills, May and Zero were relieved to be back in Sanctuary. Roland had them rest for half an hour before sending them out on another mission. Fortunately for them, he understood how it was hard to cope with Brick's murderous personality, having allied with him for more than a year upon their arrival on Pandora. Zero had gone off to his spot on the roof of the HQ, and Maya was thankful for that. His presence never failed to make her nervous.

In that half an hour, she had tried to fight those feelings. Her first solution was to consider everything she hated about Zero. Well he was arrogant, a douchebag, overly mysterious, but she couldn't stop thinking about the good points of Zero. She found this to be not at all helpful. Then she tried seeking help from someone of her gender. Well there was Gaige, Lilith and Tiny Tina. Gaige was having a mood swing, and Maya didn't exactly blame her. It was best to leave her alone. After what happened with Tina, Maya doubted she wanted to confide in her, so that left Lilith. They were both sirens, both girls, and Lilith was in a relationship, so it seemed useful. (Although she was more interested in hating Zero rather than getting in a relationship with him.)

Thankfully, Lilith seemed to understand how she felt.

"Well… YouseeI'vebeenthinkingalotaboutsomeoneandIreallywa nttostopthinkingabouthimbutIcan't so can you… Like you know be a friend and stuff and help me get over these problems because I really don't want to think about it…?" Maya finished, seeming out of breath after fitting that many words into one sentence.

"Maya do you really want my help or are you just going to sit there muttering all day?" Lilith asked, raising a brow.

"Uh… Yeah, go on," Maya responded awkwardly, not realizing that she hadn't stopped talking after her first sentence.

"Just accept these feelings, and you'll probably get over it eventually," Lilith said simply. "Now, I have to go find Gaige. I can still hear her shouting all the way over here…"

Coincidentally, Maya could hear Gaige shout something which sounded like," STUPID ROLAND STILL TRUSTING THAT JACK-WORSHIPPING FREAK!" Maya sighed as Lilith walked away. That didn't seem that helpful after all.

If she were to accept those feelings, she doubted they would go away.

"Hello," Came Zero's sudden greeting. Maya looked up from the balcony to find herself face to face with Zero, hanging upside down from the roof. She shrieked, tripping.

"GODDAMNIT, Zero! Why the hell would you do that!"

"I heard you talking."

"O-Oh you… You did?" Maya asked, unable to keep the nervousness out of her voice.

"Yes. I know what it feels like."

"You… You do?"

"I know what it feels like to hate someone to such a great extent."

At this point, Maya had to stop herself from face-palming. "Well, thank you for showing such empathy, Zero. Now I would greatly appreciate it if-if you could go back to lying on the roof," She turned to the side, having to hide her blush, which had been there the moment she had stared into Zero's visor. To her relief, she heard him disappear.

Now alone with her thoughts, she tried to remember something from her childhood. It was odd, really. It was as though someone had wiped her childhood memories clean, seeing as she could remember nothing. There was only the slightest lingering memory of a person who had been her friend. Was it a boy? If it was, did she feel the way she was feeling now about that person? That was silly, who would want to be her friend anyway? She was a freak in Athenas, someone the people worshipped out of fear. Someone who they thought of as a goddess, when in reality, she was just like everyone else, just misunderstood.

It seemed like she was alone in this issue.

**A/n: The delay was not as long as last time, but I'm suffering from writer's block. YOU KNOW HOW STRESSFUL IT IS TO WRITE FANFICTION WITH THIS THING? Nah it's ok really. I feel it going away slowly. Hope to get the next chapter up soon.**


	15. UNMASKED

**A/n: OHOHO! I wrote this note after writing the chapter, so I know what****'****s going to happen. The main focus of this story STRUCK ME just before I was going to write something boring. So get ready to be boreded for the first half, SHRIEKING WITH JOY for the second half and BEING SO DAMN INFURIATED WITH ME AT THE END. **

**Okay, some of you might have read the sneak peek on tumblr. If you haven****'****t, you should know that I was aiming for a hundred reviews, which I just got yesterday! CLAP CLAP CLAP CONFETTI. I actually finished this chapter an hour after finishing the previous one, and I was really just saving it for the 100 reviews. Thanks for it, by the way!**

**Thanks, reviewers! Now enjoy the chapter. (personally my best, though it****'****s not the longest.)**

"What's keeping those three?" Maya asked Krieg and Zero, who had been asked to accompany her to Opportunity. Zero shrugged, while Krieg simply ignored her. They were crouched behind a giant shrub, the golden sculpture of Jack looming over them, watching them as though he was listening to their every word. It was quite scary, to be honest.

Krieg had returned halfway through their mission briefing, drawing quite a lot of attention from the citizens. Some had ran off screaming about a Psycho attack. His shouting hadn't done much to assure them of his innocence either. (THE MEAT BICYCLES HAVE BEEN SHARPENED AND BLOODIED! I'M READY TO DEVOUR ALL THEIR SOULS AND FLESH!) Maya was sure she saw someone leap off the edge of Sanctuary in the process. However, she had to admit she was thankful for Krieg's timely presence. She didn't want to go on another mission with Zero.

To make matters worse, Maya had unwillingly, unintentionally accepted Lilith's advice. As corny as it sounded, her heart had chosen to do so. Salvador, Axton and Gaige were still on their mission at the Hyperion wildlife preserve, and were late by a couple of hours. (Gaige had finally gotten over her feelings of hatred towards Angel and left to meet up with the other two.) They had promised they would be back in time for the mission, but apparently, they had had a few minor setbacks. Axton had failed to inform them of anything, responding by shouting, "Don't worry, we'll be there!" Maya swore she could hear Salvador screaming something which sounded like 'LITTLE STALKIE' in the background, followed by screams of terror from the Hyperion personnel.

"If they don't get here in five minutes, we're doing this without them!" Maya decided, tired of sitting around in the sun. It turned out to be the worst five minutes of her life. In those five grueling minutes, she had to cope with Krieg constantly staring at her, fight the temptation to glance over at Zero every once in a while, all while having a battle in her head.

_Why would I be attracted to him?_

Because you do.

_How can I possibly find someone hiding behind a mask attractive?_

He just is.

_WHY THE HELL AM I THINKING OF THIS?_

It's because you're in love with him.

"Maya?" Zero asked her, poking her arm with his gloved finger.

"Y-Yes, what, Zero?" She stammered, face noticeably redder than before.

"It's been five minutes."

"Uh… S-so…?"

"You said we'd start the mission if they didn't get here in time."

"O-Oh… Right."

With that, they leapt out of their cover. Maya had intended for a stealthy approach, but Krieg could not resist the urge to thrust his saw into the skull of a nearby Engineer. So much for being sneaky.

Maya pulled out her corrosive assault rifle, firing at the approaching loaders. As effective as it seemed, they were constantly spawning, making it difficult for her to handle them all. Meanwhile, Krieg was keeping himself busy with the constructor which had appeared out of nowhere, shooting it whenever it's front was exposed. Zero had created a hologram with Decepti0n, and no one was free to search for him.

She took aim and fired at an approaching WAR loader, emptying her mag on it. Then there was the familiar, ominous beeping of an EXP loader behind her. She turned to find it making its way towards her, walking at an abnormally quick pace. "Shit," She muttered under her breath, grabbing some ammo off the floor and rushing to reload her weapon. She backed away from it, and by the time she had her gun reloaded, it was already right in front of her, preparing to detonate. Maya placed her arms over her head, bracing herself for the explosion and the familiar sensation of being whisked away through respawn. It never came, but instead, she heard the noise of Zero's digistructed blade cutting through metal. She opened her eyes wearily, to see Zero giving her the thumbs up sign, before disappearing once more.

"Idiot," She whispered, before returning to the ongoing fight.

Salvador felt that they were doing a good job. Sure, they were late by five hours, and had not even discovered the location of Bloodwing yet, but they were killing things, and most importantly- having fun. His mother had always told him, "What's the point of killing if you aren't having a good time doing it?" She then proceeded to cut a man's chest open. It was the family motto. So Salvador thought to himself- How could I make the thrill of murder even thrill-ier? That was when he heard the whimpering of a stalker from a cage hanging over their heads. In their village, they would often raise skags and stalkers as a form of defense. On eden-5 they used dogs. On Pandora they used stalkers and skags. He had developed quite a soft spot for them over the course of his disturbing yet innocent childhood.

So without warning, he fired a rocket launcher at the chain suspending the cage, letting the stalker out. Out came the largest, most beautiful jet black stalker he had ever seen. Axton and Gaige were moments away from raining bullets on it, but they were stopped by Salvador. "Give the poor creature a chance, yes?" He pleaded with them. They lowered they guns reluctantly, casting worried glances at one another. They found this to be the greatest decision they'd ever made. The three watched as the stalker leapt over shelves and crates, turning invisible and materializing behind each loader and engineer, tearing them apart. Salvador found it to be the most beautiful thing his eyes had ever witnessed.

"Axton, where the hell are you guys? Salvador's not responding to his ECHO and Gaige's is still broken, so I've no choice but to call you!" Maya shouted at them over ECHO.

"Woah, relax for a moment! Don't worry, we'll be there!" He responded calmly, as Salvador shouted in a state of extreme bliss. He had dubbed the stalker Little Stalkie, quite a suiting name for the creature.

That was how they found themselves intentionally late.

"That, I assume, is the body double Angel was referring to?" Maya asked. Krieg raised his fist as though he was about to shout something and charge forth but decided against it and chose to remain silent instead. Maya was glad he was able to refrain himself from giving up their position.

"Yes. May I suggest a suitable course of action?" Zero asked, and Maya noticed how he had decreased the volume of his speaking. This was no doubt an assassination mission, and Zero had handled jobs like this before, considering the fact that his title was 'The Assassin'.

"I will sneak up on the body double and take him out. You both can cover me," He suggested. Maya nodded, deciding that it was best left to a professional.

"I'M READY TO FEAST ON THE FLESH AND BLOOD OF THE ONE WHO PRETENDS TO BE KING!" Came Krieg's enthusiastic response. Maya flinched and nearly popped a vein. Everyone turned to face them. The body double snapped out of his shock sooner than anyone else, and hurled a grenade in their direction.

"GODDAMNIT, KRIEG," Maya screamed, diving down onto the ground floor for cover. Zero had leapt to another part of the ledge, while Krieg remained glued to the spot, eyeing the grenade as though it was candy. It detonated, and when the smoke cleared, she noticed he had been downed.

He got back up almost immediately, a pile of dynamite now in his hand. "LIGHT THE FUSE!" He yelled triumphantly, and Maya was not quite aware of what happened after his sudden outburst. He began throwing the dynamite in all directions, until only one remained in his grip. The stunned body double of Jack fired a bullet in Krieg's direction, but he twisted his head at just the right moment to avoid it.

"FACE THE WRATH OF MY MEAT BICYCLE!" He laughed, throwing the dynamite at the body double. It hit him perfectly in the face, and detonated at the perfect moment. Krieg danced a little as bits of the double landed on the ground. There was his liver sliding down a wall, and an eyeball rolling around near Krieg's feet.

'Well,' Maya thought to herself. 'He made up for his mistake earlier.'

The three vault hunters found themselves ascending to a circular platform which seemed like an arena of sorts. The elevator had been too small to accommodate the size of Little Stalkie, who had been reluctantly left behind by Salvador. Gaige was beginning to get suspicious. A giant empty space was not a good sign. It certainly didn't mean happiness, but was a sign that something big and terrible was about to arrive and rain hell on all of them. She crossed her fingers, hoping that she was wrong and that it would instead be a lovely party where someone would drop ammo for them from a buzzer or something. Seemed too good to actually happen.

-Insert super bloodwing reveal-

"Hey kids! Did you know what your parents had to sacrifice to live in Opportunity? Nothing! They're paid to live here!" Zero did not intend to spend his day listening to Jack advertising his city. On the bright side, there were only four more recordings to listen to. Zero flinched as a bullet hit his right arm, depleting his shield by a little. In the distance, he could spot Krieg cutting through the loaders with his buzz saw. Upon closer analysis, he found that Krieg was only attacking the loaders which had targeted Maya, but left those firing at him unharmed.

He had only been suspicious of this at first, but now he was sure of it- Krieg was in love with Maya. There was an odd sensation in his chest, as though there was a monster roaring inside of him. Was it jealousy? Was it that he was annoyed with Krieg trying to steal _his_ Maya? "Zero! Behind you!" Shouted Maya, and it snapped him back into reality. The monster had disappeared- for now, he assumed. He spun around, finding an engineer leaping towards him with his fist raised. This seemed similar to the engineer which had attacked him on the Hyperion train. It brought back memories of meeting the others for the first time, saving Maya and his mind zoned out. His thoughts were entirely consumed with Maya-related situations. The next thing he felt was the engineer's fist connecting with the side of his face, producing a loud THUMP as Zero collapsed on the ground, panting. He ran his palm down the side of his mask, to find it cracked- there was a hole in his helmet, leaving the left side of his face exposed.

"Fuck," He muttered genuinely, without the aid of his usual speaking tool, as he felt a cool breeze brushing his cheek. The power source of his helmet had been damaged, leaving his vision completely black. His mask was no longer functional, and the engineer was still after him.

"Get away from him, you son of a bitch!" Maya snapped, firing a rocket at the engineer, whose corpse flew halfway across Opportunity.

"Zero, are you alr-!" Maya was too shocked to respond. Zero had his back facing her, and was fidgeting with his helmet. He had his palm placed against the side of his mask, and Maya was sure of it- there was a hole in his mask, and Zero was doing his best to cover it up. He swayed unevenly on his feet, and Maya had to pull him back abruptly to stop him from crashing into a wall in his struggle to navigate around Opportunity. Maya wasn't an engineering genius like Scooter or Gaige, but she didn't need to be a genius to realize that his entire helmet wasn't working, leaving him handicapped.

"Zero, stop! Just take off the helmet!" She pleaded, grabbing him by the arm. He shook her hand off.

"I'm fine," He stammered, and Maya gasped. His real voice, not the usual monotone voice he usually used. It was deep, but not like Axton or Salvador's. She couldn't exactly describe it- it was unique.

"Take it off!" Maya shouted, now not too sure if she was asking him out of curiosity or concern.

"I said I'm fi-!" Zero had turned hastily, and in his blind struggle, crashed into Maya, whose lips awkwardly collided with the front of his visor. Both remained still for a split second, before Maya pulled away quickly, her face bright red in embarrassment. Zero was left stunned, just as embarrassed as she was, and tripped over his own feet. His back hit the ground hard, leaving him groaning in pain. When he opened his eyes, there was no longer the black screen of nothingness. Halfway through the fall, his helmet had fallen off. For more than ten years, the helmet had remained on his head, and he had forgotten what it was like to not have it on. His eyes hurt from exposure with the sun, and the sudden gust of fresh air which filled his lungs shocked him momentarily. His eyes were clamped shut, but he slowly opened them, aiming to adapt to the feeling slowly.

Maya watched, clearly in a state of shock as he let his arms fall to his sides, when they had been covering his face moments ago. He had red unnatural red pupils, and his skin had a greyish tint to it. He had short black, messy hair, which surprisingly had not grown after being untouched for so long.

"Zero… Your face…"

**A****/n: THIS IS BY FAR THE GREATEST CLIFFHANGER I HAVE EVER WRITTEN! I felt that it was suitable to end this chapter with a dramatic sentence. AMAZING, IS IT NOT? I got over my writer's block and finished it in TWO DAYS! **

_**This was a triumph.**_

_**I'm making a note here- Huge success.**_

_**It's hard to overstate my satisfaction. **_

_**APERTURE SCIENCE**_

_**WE DO WHAT WE MUST**_

_**BECAUSE WE CAN**_

**Okay I got carried away. The second half is irrelevant. But the first half is! LEMME KNOW HOW MANY OF YOU PORTAL FANS READ MY STORY. Also, complete the song for a shoutout!**

**Here's a quick message from your favourite stalker:**

**YO PEOPLE HOW R U GUYS! K SADDLECREEPERZ WANTS ME TO SPREAD THIS MESSAGE- IF THE REVIEWS DO NOT GO UP TO 100**

**And I cut stalker off abruptly because I do not wish to advertise and be a review whore. TGRTOGRWIGRRAIEFWJRE**

**There was a small fight fc between stalkero anfd bng8iI.k **

**Here's a special announcement- Stalker will be writing a chapter of A SIGNIFICANT LACK OF WISDOM CAUSE I FORCED HER TGOIYYG TFF T**

**THE END**


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